All About Pocket Knives

Are all the nice, clean pearl handle knives of the 40's to 60's for real? Where did they all come from all of a sudden?
Thanks

Where are you seeing all these pearls? Not sure what you are referring to.

Ebay and AAPK sales--"bunches"

Pearl was a popular handle material for many patterns of folding knives so there are a great many old pearl handled knives 'out there'.
There is man made synthetic material that resembles pearl to some degree and some sellers do not know the difference between the synthetic and real pearl.
kj

Some collectors focus on a particular handle material, like pearl. I’ve seen a couple of pearl collections being sold. It may be as simple as that. I’ve read that like stag it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get large pieces of cutlery-quality pearl, which is why we are seeing fewer new knives with pearl handle covers. Those that are being made are mostly smaller patterns or have techniques like cigar band construction. Just my observations FWIW.

Ken

The problem with pearl handles is if you drop your knife onto a hard surface the pearl is likely to crack. Bone, stag, and wood, are less likely to crack.
kj

Knives run in fads. Sometimes I'll continually and consistently be able to source a certain type of knife. Then there gone. Sometimes I can't hardly give away a certain knife but I keep buying them. Then bam thats what everyone wants. That could be what your seeing. A cretain amount of collectors liquidating there pearl in favor for something else.