All About Pocket Knives

Is anyone watching this knife on ebay and what do you think about it?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/CASE-TESTED-XX ... 0290.m3507

My observations, FWIW, are it looks like a good Tested era block letter shield, and greenbone handles look okay. HOWEVER, the bone handles look to have a lot of pocket wear (or buffing). The blades don't show wear consistent with the handle wear. If it's legit it's been apart and cleaned/buffed, which could explain the missing part of the tang stamp (it's been buffed away).

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. (Until someone smarter tells me I'm wrong! )

Ken

I agree Ken . That bone has seen lots of pocket time. Likely cleaned but what a grand old knife.

The knife looks okay, pocket wear, some blade lost and been cleaned. Very rare knife

Here one to compare

I think that is a tremendous amount of pocket wear on the handles for a knife that looks to have very full spey and sheepsfoot blades. 1+2=5 doesn't add up for me.

I'm looking at how flat the head of pins are on the ebay knife compared to the one jlw257 posted. I think it has been buffed nearly to death. I also think the pictures aren't doing a good job of showing the real condition of the blades. In the pictures, the blades are washed-out and have lost detail. Finally, I think you are spot-on about the tang stamp being partially ground/buffed off. I'm not sure if the knife has been disassembled - it probably has, but if so, then they buffed the heck out of it after it was reassembled and flattened those pins.

For what it is worth I think parts of the knife are authentic but I definitely do not like the Tested Stamp on the knife. It may be authentic but I sure would not bid on it myself.

Tom

I don't like the stamp either.Letters look rounded on the end.

The amount of cleaning on almost all old Case knives I see for sale is a crime. If they are not shinny most modern collector don't want them. Very few 100 year old knives look new. When I started collecting cleaning was the norm I though it had changed, but recently it seems to be the new norm. My rant.

Harold

stockman wrote:The amount of cleaning on almost all old Case knives I see for sale is a crime. If they are not shinny most modern collector don't want them. Very few 100 year old knives look new. When I started collecting cleaning was the norm I though it had changed, but recently it seems to be the new norm. My rant.

Harold

I had a beautiful 6394 Tested knife about 10 years ago that I considered to be in high excellent condition. Full blades, beautiful green bone handles and good snap all around. I know that the dealer/buyer that purchased it from me would have it cleaned before offering it for sale again. To each his own but I find it difficult to use HOK and cleaned in the same sentence.

Does anyone besides me think the abrupt ending of the top of the big C in the stamp could be the product of weld? Well view of the master looks like the tang has been thinned from cleaning.

btrwtr wrote: Does anyone besides me think the abrupt ending of the top of the big C in the stamp could be the product of weld? Well view of the master looks like the tang has been thinned from cleaning.

The grind line between the blade and the tang looks very peculiar to me. The blade looks like a 94 1/2 clip blade to me. In the top down picture of the knife the blades look thinned to me. I can't offer an opinion about what was done to the knife to make it look peculiar to me. There are several other things about the knife that prevent me from being interested owning the knife - most of which have already been mentioned.

1. Shield shows no pocket wear, but the handles show much pocket wear. Pocket wear of the shield should be commensurate with pocket wear on the handles. My conclusion is the shield has been replaced.
2. Condition of the handles don't match condition of blades.
3. Stamping is weird with portion of the "C" missing when the rest of the mark appears deep and bright.
4. Grind line transition from blade to tang is smooth. This could be an illusion based on lighting and camera angle.

There is a lot that is right with this knife. Ken mumbleypeg's AAPK signature says something to the effect of "It's easy to discern right from wrong; It's difficult to discern right from almost right".

I attached comparison pictures of the original post knife's tang side-by-side with a comparable tang and mark from a Tested XX 6394 1/2 that I have. I will note that the ends of some of the letters and the end of the underline in my tang stamp are more roundish I would like to see. For reference, a full picture of the knife I used in the comparison is included below.

Somebody liked it fairly well! Sold for$1442.