All About Pocket Knives

I am having second thoughts as to this ebay auction.. The seller says "near mint" "never sharpened" "transition"???????? Item # 144920886565

https://www.ebay.com/itm/144920886565?h ... R_rHxd3BYQ

Seller description says lightly used. Probably buffed. Claims the blades are Tested era blades stamped XX making it an early XX knife (thus “transition”).

Ken

You can see from the picture looking down into the well of the knife with the blades closed that the blades are well short of the mark, that accounts for the slimmer profile, in my opinion. Down at least 10%, especially the front blade. Still a nice old knife, probably cleaned. JMO

I agree with msteele6, those blades were used and then heavily buffed. Just look at the two knives together and compare the blades. The difference is glaring.

Eric

'Don't go swimming in "The Bay" if you can't out-swim the sharks. That one has been scrubbed cleaner than Biden's garages. Too bad, somebody's going to get burned. J.O'.

Ridgegrass wrote: ↑Wed Feb 01, 2023 8:23 pm 'Don't go swimming in "The Bay" if you can't out-swim the sharks. That one has been scrubbed cleaner than Biden's garages. Too bad, somebody's going to get burned. J.O'.

I don’t use eBay. Always best to examine the knives you buy in person.

You bet! J.O'.

OSCAR wrote: ↑Wed Feb 01, 2023 8:27 pm

Ridgegrass wrote: ↑Wed Feb 01, 2023 8:23 pm 'Don't go swimming in "The Bay" if you can't out-swim the sharks. That one has been scrubbed cleaner than Biden's garages. Too bad, somebody's going to get burned. J.O'.

I don’t use eBay. Always best to examine the knives you buy in person.

My goal this year, starting this Spring, is to increase my spending at places like local flea markets, antique malls, and our sole cutlery dealer; and reduce what I spend online.

While I don't buy knives that are considered very collectible or pricey, I do need to do more research into what welded blades and cold-stamped fake tang markings look like so I can spot a fake. I have several pre-WWII and even WWI knives in pretty poor condition, and while their tang stamps are a good reference, I don't think it's enough.

Get a copy of Counterfeiting Antique Cutlery by Gerald Witcher. Hundreds af pictures of both fake and legitimate stamps, including what to look for, how to recognize fakes, both stamps and knife construction.

Out of print, so look for it at secondary markets like used book sellers. Knife Magazine sold copies for years but I think maybe they’ve exhausted their supply.

Ken

Tested muskrat blades are certainly not any shorter than other muskrat blades of different eras. If they are mint they are full length.

Tom

This post illustrates why buying something remotely from a description doesn't appeal to me. Certainly not all e-bay sales are like this and maybe the seller "thinks" he's correct in his advertising. I'd rather buy a knife in it's natural condition, be it dirty, rusty, or however flawed. It can be cleaned, oiled, etc. later but at least I know more about what I'm getting. Again, I don't fault anyone for cleaning and polishing if that's what they like, but it can be deceiving if someone wants it to be. We've all seen some very well done "diddling" presented as "excellent" condition. JMHO
J.O'.

This seller includes the one picture that is most important to determine the condition. The picture of the blades in the well photo is one that is not included by the vast majority of eBay sellers selling older collectible pocketknives. Master blade tips on nearly all patterns should extend to and past the opposite end bolster (on knives that are bolstered on both ends) when the blades are closed. Even if the knife is a barehead or shadow type knife the length of the blades and overall use can only be best seen in this photo. Camera angles and the distortion of wide angle lenses can't disguise what is evident in this picture. In this example the seller tries to, and falsely explains the shortness of these well used and overbuffed blades as the result of being an older model knife. Since this picture is so important it is hard to understand why so many sellers show so many pictures only to leave this picture out of the description. I am sure that some sellers leave it out deliberately for the obvious reason.

At a current bid of $227.50 it is easy to see that the bidders are buying and reading the description rather than reading the knife. Both blades of this knife are significantly short. IMO $50 would be plenty for such a well used example.

Wayne, Good tip for all. "Read the knife". Excellent. J.O'.

A great example of what they used to call "Buffed to Mint."