All About Pocket Knives

Why would the brand name on an otherwise seemingly perfect knife be “X”-ed out with a grinder/dremel? Is this a way they indicated that the knife was a “second”?

Sometimes. That is always the first suspicion. But sometimes you find a pretty good knife that is deemed a 2nd by some inspector. Welcome to AAPK.

Also it can mean that your knife was a Counterfeit.

It can mean a lot of things. If it's factory, second/overrun/reject. Those can vary from cosmetic, and perfectly usable, to utter safety hazard (and I've owned a lot of them--I'm cheap!) Sometimes, it may be from a customizer/repairman, as a way to keep from passing it off as a fake.

But as a general rule, it IS NOT worth more by being a second. I've had that bull try to be passed on me more than once. Guy tried to tell me it was a rare export model intended for Germany (Schrade hawkbill).

Most likely a second,or has Gary mentioned a fake.There was a seller on EBay a year or so back that was selling fakes with their tangs ground off and calling them salesman samples.

It’s curious...I would have thought if it’s a factory second that it would be destroyed and never make it out of the factory. And I can’t imagine a repair person marking a customer’s knife. I mean it would take some effort to make the two little ground lines and not touch anything else. I’m new to this; would Camillus trouble themselves to bother marking a knife and then selling it as a second? Maybe camillus inspector marks it because they couldn’t trust other workers to not not put it into their pocket instead of the dumpster or whatever...

It has been a common practice for knife companies to mark their flawed knives as seconds and put them up for sale at reduced prices. It's a way for them to recoup their expense of making the knife without (hopefully) diminishing the brand.

Welcome to AAPK RandallM

For some strange reason there are an awful lot of these Camillus / silver screen knives out there that are factory seconds. I have 2 friends that are putting together complete sets of this series. I have looked at some of their knives and the on the seconds I've seen there are tiny pin cracks in the handle material. The knives function perfectly. As has already been said if Camillus had sent these to customers they would have complained about the poor quality and most likely sent the knife back and asked for a replacement and Camillus would been forced to foot the expense. By culling them they have protected the quality of their brand name and saved paying for returns. Selling them at a much discounted price on the open market allowed them to recover some of their cost. Somewhere on here there is an old post that says Case sold factory seconds in their gift shop and when visitors came on tours they could buy the knives.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Camillus-Rider ... 7675.l2557

philco wrote: ↑Sun Jun 28, 2020 3:14 am It has been a common practice for knife companies to mark their flawed knives as seconds and put them up for sale at reduced prices. It's a way for them to recoup their expense of making the knife without (hopefully) diminishing the brand.

Welcome to AAPK RandallM

Yep...Buck does this to a lot of their knives that get messed up during production. If there is a 'blemish' that is noticed, they etch the blade with a "FB" (factory blemish) and sell them at a reduced price. Eveled posted some photos recently where one of the knives was a FB, which is a perfect example.