1989 NKCA Case XX Sleeveboards Share Same Serial #

fnhfive7

fnhfive7

Joined
Oct 22, 2015
Messages
52
So, both of these knives have the exact same serial # - L0955. I ran across them when looking for some other knife about 2 months ago and thought it was pretty neat. I don't remember ever seeing this before (maybe online but definitely not with any of my knives) so I am not sure how or why it happened but it's kind of cool all the same. They are 1989 NKCA knives called a "Sleeveboard" I believe and the # is ROG62070 SS. Scales are Roger's bone. Maybe someone here can shed some light on how this happens or might know of others. Y'all have a good one.

edit: sorry, 1 picture is pretty awful. I am trying hard to get better.
 

Attachments

  • serial2.jpg
    serial2.jpg
    71.5 KB · Views: 18
  • serial.jpg
    serial.jpg
    63.6 KB · Views: 18
The NKCA offered 2 knives that year, for the first time ever. This was the folder, and they also offered the Buck Skinner for the fixed blade. They made 6500 of these Case Sleeveboard Sunfish pattern, with Rogers jigged brown bone handles. Lifetime members of the NKCA had first dibs on ordering, and could have their lifetime member # used instead of a serial number, which is why this has the L0955. This lifetime member must have ordered 2 or more of these knives.
 
Oh wow good info!! So that is why some of these have an "L" in front of the # and some don't...the ones with the "L" must be the Lifetime member #'d ones. So, you could order as many as you wanted with the same # and then they just took that many off of the 6500 total I guess? Thanks a bunch for the great info man, it is much appreciated.

Oh and I also have the other one you mentioned from this year...the Skinner. I wonder why they offered 2 knives some years. I have all of the NKCA knives from the 1st in 1975 up to 2006 I think and I have seen 2-3 years that had 2 knives I believe. Odd for sure.
 
I know in the later years you were limited to 2 max per member, until I think the final year (2013) when it was unlimited.

From 1975-1988 they had 1 knife each year. They started the double (1 folding, 1 fixed) knives per year from 1989-1994. In 1995 and 1996 there were 2 different folding knives offered. Then it was just 1 knife per year from 1997-2004. Then from 2005-2009 there were 2 different folding knives again. Then 2010-2013 it was back to just 1 knife offered.
 
Wow you are full of good info. I did not realize they did 1 folder/1 fixed from 1989-1994 and then just folders a couple years and so on. Which NCKA knives are your favorites if I may ask? I'm not sure what my actual favorite is, but the Schatt & Morgan knives seem to be made super well and most look really cool. I ran across this one this morning...I always liked it because of the blue handles and it just looks well made. Thanks again man.



nkca y4.jpg
 
fnhfive7 said:
Wow you are full of good info. I did not realize they did 1 folder/1 fixed from 1989-1994 and then just folders a couple years and so on. Which NCKA knives are your favorites if I may ask? I'm not sure what my actual favorite is, but the Schatt & Morgan knives seem to be made super well and most look really cool. I ran across this one this morning...I always liked it because of the blue handles and it just looks well made. Thanks again man.



View attachment 1664302
Click to expand...
My collection began with my grandpa buying me the yearly youth knives, which originally were only sold to NKCA members under 18 years old (or to club members so they could give it to someone under 18 years old). NKCA Youth knives started in 1990 and ran until 2013. My first knife was the 1994 youth, and then each year I got the next one. When I got older I tracked down the ones I was missing. They dropped the age restriction as some point and I continued buying the youth knives each year. Then when they auctioned off all the prototypes, I purchased quite a few of those for my collection.

I'd say my favorite out of my youth knives would probably be either the 1995 Queen slimline, the 2000 Puma stockman, the 2005 Queen Mini Coke Bottle, or the 2007 GEC Trapper.

Here is my collection. 1st image is the prototypes. 2nd image is the youth knives from 1990-2013, including the year 2000 commemorative set.

(images removed due to BF Attachment limits)
 
Last edited:
Oh my gosh all the prototypes. That is one very nice collection! And those lockbacks that are # 0000 and 0001 are So cool-it had to be hell trying to track those down. What is the knife on the right side towards the bottom in the 2nd pic? The bright yellow one. I definitely do not have that but I would like to. Gosh, I cannot get over all of the protos you have. I believe I only have 1 and if I remember right it's a Case Collector's Club. So out of all of yours which was the hardest to find or did you just happen to run across the rarer ones? And are there any you were not able to track down?

LOL wow I was just browsing around online and saw someone on another knife site say, "Here is a page from Rookie's website which has information on your knife." and it has a link to www. nkcayouth.com

I am guessing that is you? 8 ) - You are a regular NKCAologist! Thanks a ton for showing me your collection and for all the great info Rookie, I really appreciate you.
 
The Case Collectors Club (CCC) uses the same numbering strategy, i.e., marking 'L####' on knives made available only to members. The 'L' indicates a lifetime membership, with the other digits indicating a particular member's ID#.

I'm a CCC lifetime member, BTW, so it looks familiar. ;)
 
Last edited:
fnhfive7 said:
Oh my gosh all the prototypes. That is one very nice collection! And those lockbacks that are # 0000 and 0001 are So cool-it had to be hell trying to track those down. What is the knife on the right side towards the bottom in the 2nd pic? The bright yellow one. I definitely do not have that but I would like to. Gosh, I cannot get over all of the protos you have. I believe I only have 1 and if I remember right it's a Case Collector's Club. So out of all of yours which was the hardest to find or did you just happen to run across the rarer ones? And are there any you were not able to track down?

LOL wow I was just browsing around online and saw someone on another knife site say, "Here is a page from Rookie's website which has information on your knife." and it has a link to www. nkcayouth.com

I am guessing that is you? 8 ) - You are a regular NKCAologist! Thanks a ton for showing me your collection and for all the great info Rookie, I really appreciate you.
Click to expand...

After the NKCA was closed down, a year or so later they had a prototype auction, selling off 40 years worth of knives that were submitted to them to potentially be chosen. Bruce Voyles handled the auction, and there were over 180 lots total. I bought 10 or so during that auction, wish I could have afforded to buy a lot more. So over the years a few have popped up on Ebay, or I found some in person at knife shows. But there are still tons and tons of them out there somewhere just sitting and waiting for me to find them. I have pictures of all of them from the auction so I can see what I still need to find.

The little yellow knife is a single blade dogleg trapper made by GEC (Tidioute) pattern 56, skeleton only. Then the parts were sent to Michael Prater (Painted Pony) who added on the Sunshine Mica Pearl handles. They never released how many were made, but I'm guessing it's around 300 knives.

Yes, that website you saw a link to was my old website. It finally was so outdated that I just let it fade away. Didn't seem like very many people used it, and GoDaddy kept raising their costs. Most of the actual NKCA board members and historians are gone now, or at least are not on computers to help spread their knowledge. Talking with most knife collectors now and they don't even know what the NKCA was, and how important it was. It came close to 20,000 members in the 80's.
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
The Case Collectors Club (CCC) uses the same numbering strategy, i.e., marking 'L####' on knives made available only to members. The 'L' indicates a lifetime membership, with the other digits indicating a particular member's #.

I'm a CCC lifetime member, BTW, so it looks familiar. ;)
Click to expand...

I'm a lifetime member also! And thank you for that info about the serial #'s. I have maybe 60 CCC knives but I hadn't noticed the "L" on any of them but I also wasn't looking for it so I am sure some have it. Some of the CCC knives are like folding swords. Large Barlows and big ole Coke Bottles just to name a couple.
 
Wow, I'd love to see the pics of all the prototypes! I will look when I get home and make sure the proto I ran across a month ago wasn't an NKCA, but almost positive it is a CCC Slimline Jack knife I think it's called.

The Dogleg Trapper is super neat. I have never owned any GEC knives but they seem very popular and look to be very high quality. Are they a production knife manufacturer or custom or some of both? And that yellow is pearl?!? It is just stunning, that's for sure.

Very cool you had your own website about NKCA knives! You sure have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the subject (now I know who to message when I have questions lol).

Yes, I hate that the NKCA just kind of faded out like it did. All those years of being in the middle of most all things knives and now all but gone.
 
fnhfive7 said:
I'm a lifetime member also! And thank you for that info about the serial #'s. I have maybe 60 CCC knives but I hadn't noticed the "L" on any of them but I also wasn't looking for it so I am sure some have it. Some of the CCC knives are like folding swords. Large Barlows and big ole Coke Bottles just to name a couple.
Click to expand...
I might be wrong, but I seem to recall when I get mailings from CCC about member knives being offered, I think they give the option to have the member ID# engraved on the knife or not. So, it may be that some CCC member knives won't have it, if the member chose not to have it engraved. I haven't taken advantage of the member knife offerings very often - but I might have a knife or two of those, and I don't remember at the moment if my CCC ID# was engraved or not.

I do know that the member ID# is prominent on the address label for every CCC mailing I receive. So, that's where I'm most used to seeing it, and why it looks familiar to me.
 
Rookie82 said:
After the NKCA was closed down,.. Talking with most knife collectors now and they don't even know what the NKCA was, and how important it was. It came close to 20,000 members in the 80's.
Click to expand...

Why did it shut down ? Not enough members anymore ?
It's always sad to see associations like this fade away.
 
fnhfive7 said:
Wow, I'd love to see the pics of all the prototypes! I will look when I get home and make sure the proto I ran across a month ago wasn't an NKCA, but almost positive it is a CCC Slimline Jack knife I think it's called.

The Dogleg Trapper is super neat. I have never owned any GEC knives but they seem very popular and look to be very high quality. Are they a production knife manufacturer or custom or some of both? And that yellow is pearl?!? It is just stunning, that's for sure.

Very cool you had your own website about NKCA knives! You sure have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the subject (now I know who to message when I have questions lol).

Yes, I hate that the NKCA just kind of faded out like it did. All those years of being in the middle of most all things knives and now all but gone.
Click to expand...
Voyles deleted all the photos of the prototypes off his site about 1 year after the auction. I'm glad I have them all on my computer. GEC is a knife factory in Titusville, PA. They don't do custom knives, but they make the highest quality factory knives available anywhere. The Mica Pearl is a name for the material, but it isn't real pearl. More like acrylic with glitter mixed in.

wouter1967 said:
Why did it shut down ? Not enough members anymore ?
It's always sad to see associations like this fade away.
Click to expand...
Well, most people think that the sale in the early 90's of lifetime memberships was the beginning of the end. The club actually had full paid staff to handle all the business, and they owned their own building. When everyone bought lifetime memberships, after the initial bunch of money rolled in, then there was no more yearly revenue, and by 2000 they were hurting, and only making money off knife sales. Once a lot of the old timers passed away, they went from selling 12,000 knives per year, to 1,000, and then even less. By 2014 (the last official year in business) they did a pre-order for the knives, collected over $50,000 in money, and then never had the knives made, and the secretary/president skipped away with the money. They tried a class-action lawsuit in Tennessee to get the money back, but it didn't work. Sad end to a business that ran almost 50 years and in the beginning rivaled the NRA for its presence and representation for knife laws in the country.
 
I loved the NKCA shows. Saw and held my first Bose and Scagel at one. Lots of old slipjoints, plus modern and customs. Used to pilgrimage to the one in Springfield every summer. Same weekend as the Appleton City town fair. Would go to the dirt track races in Bolivar the night before the show. Good times :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top