Flea Market finds

Codger_64

Codger_64

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Wifey dragged me to a flea market this weekend, a huge one, several blocks long in a small town. Sellers had everything under the sun... except good knives. It took three hours in the sun to see it all (well, most of it), and I only came away with one knife. Almost all of the stuff was Pakistani, or Frost, or Chinese, or fantasy knives from all three. There were a few sellers with Case knives. And one guy had this Jackmaster 435 Barlow. I could say I bought it because I felt sorry for him (there weren't many shoppers), but I bought it out of curiosity. If I had felt sorry for him, I'd have given him the fifteen he was asking for it and the oddball sheath it was stuck in. As it was, I gave him five and the sheath back.

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There was one more knife that caught my attention. It was a Russell Barlow pattern with what appeared to be old heavy, dark leather covers, over four inches long, and with worn blades. I'm still mulling going back next weekend to buy it. Heck, it was an oldie, though I have no idea just how old.

Codger
 
Is Jackmaster a Schrade made knife, Codger?
 
Short answer...
It was an Imperial (see top left of Point-of-Sale Material).
I'm sure Codger will expound...maybe even at length. :D

Bill
 
No, no Bill. Phil knows the jackmasters much better than I ever will. And LT probably has this display filled. These were the knives boy's dreams were made of back in the fifties. Mr. Ralph had a "rollin' store" that came by our house on a rural dirt road every Wednesday and Saturday. If you stood by the road where he could see you, he'd stop and open a side door with a counter and a drop-down step for us kids. Penny candy, cold cokes in a real ice box for a dime and a used bottle, capguns with a roll of caps for another dime, and the Jackmaster card hanging there taunting us.

I seem to remember they cost a dollar and a half, which was a lot of money to a barefoot kid from the Arkansas cotton fields. Yes, they were cheap knives, but how long would an eight year old keep up with one, anyway? Some got lost, some traded for marbles or a new pup, maybe even a couple of shotgun shells, but almost always before they broke. So big brother and I were forever needing one for him, or me, or both of us.

To make matters worse, Mr. Ralph had a store in town, and hanging above his shelves behind the counter was always those cards of knives, red and blue bandannas, Zippos and flints, harmonicas and capguns. That is where he kept the full cards, not in the "rollin store". It was mostly for the field hands who hadn't transportation to town (a prediciment us kids shared with them).
 
I had a great month at the flea market, after some suggestions from you guys. Here is what I found:

Schrade 512OT Stainless Sharpfinger circa 1989-92 flea $14.00
Schrade 55OTG Bruin EXT- (Blade Lifter); 4 in.- drop point - liner lock; thumb stud, green handle flea $9.00
Schrade Cope USA just like the 12OT with 2-7/8"; clip flea $5.00
Schrade Littlemouth Fillet Knife GRAFILLET 4-1/2" schrade+ steel still in original package flea $20.00
 
A veritable collection for under $50! Nice going; you have way better flea markets than we do! Care to share the location??
 
I've passed up a lot of nice inexpensive knives like that, but I'm beginning to see the error of my ways. It's not the knife, it's the history!
 
The aforementioned flea market was in Spirit Lake Iowa over Memorial day weekend. Lots of vendors, many had small displays, and it was pretty much the thrill of the hunt!
 
I guess the flea markets will be my next stop.
After reading several posts on pawn shop finds I went out and hit every pawn shop and re-sale shop in the area. I knew that finding exactly what I wanted was not going to happen but I thought I might find something interesting. Only thing I found was one of the old Imperial Fish knives. Whoever owned it thought that a bench grinder was the proper way to sharpen a blade. It was tagged $17.50 :rolleyes:

it was pretty much the thrill of the hunt!
Click to expand...

Even though I came up empty, It was a good time digging through boxes of old junk looking for the one. ;)

Thanks for the continuing lessons.
 
Here are a couple more of the cheap shell knives I picked up a while back. The two-tone is attractive to me, much like cars and trucks of the fifties.
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I don't have any resource materials for the Imperials of this genre, but some day hope to. They don't have to be high dollar to have a historical value.

Codger
 
Great looking pieces, a real reminder of that era's style!
 
While I'm still addicted to garage/yard/moving sales (sometimes 20-30 a week in my little town), Flea Markets have been very good to me. (Though I have leave town to find good ones.) I favor the old-tool sellers, because I have my best "finds" raking through old files and combo wrenches. Found an old PAL fixed blade with RH blade markings and a Solingen fixed blade Boker in the same 9x13 cake pan full of files. The sellers that organize and do a nice attractive spread of categorized stuff on a table generally want too much, when I do find an old knife. I think some folks buy cheap at auction the contents of storage containers when owners stop paying the rent, then just haul the boxes of "junk" out to the flea market without ever going through it. So when you find one with a bunch of boxes of jumbled stuff, it's worth the time to do some digging. They don't know what they have and may have a couple hundred items they can sell at a buck or two each and still make a good profit. Yeah... the digging is best, kinda like prospecting...
Later,
Barry
 
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