Gerber 1968 Mark 2 Combat Knife - L6 Steel... Whats it worth?

[Lineman1]

I picked this up at a large estate sale along with several other knifes. The family was selling off some older belongings and apparently most of the knives belonged to the guys father whom was in the military (wish I had asked for more info). I picked up several old knives (Worn down 118s, Swiss army knives, and some other older fixed blades.) but this is the knife I am most curious about. It looks to almost certainly a Gerber 1968 Mark 2 Combat knife in L6. It has the RAUF CO / MARINE logo on the inside of the sheath snap which helped me identify the knife. The sheath is in great condition besides some wear marks on the sheath snap. The blade is extremely sharp and the point is perfect, blade is balanced etc. However it does have a few small scratch marks and a few spots of surface rust. I am afraid the pictures don't do very good justice to how small the spots/scratches are. I have gotten much worse knives into tip top shape with some hard work and metal polish. I am afraid to mess with this particular knife though because of the history that the knife may hold. Can anyone give me more info on the knife along with a price estimate - Also should I work on the knife at all? Or should I send it to a professional? I dont imagine it will take much to make the condition top notch.

Thank you all in advance.

*Edits - added pictures and fixed some spelling

 

[hhmoore]

I can't give you a value; but, typically, the closer something is to original condition, the higher the value will be. If monetary value is your primary concern, I would recommend not doing anything to it. If, on the other hand, you just want to pretty it up a bit for the enjoyment of doing so - and you aren't concerned about possibly knocking the value down a bit - go for it.

Sorry I cant be of more help. There are a couple of good sites out there dedicated to the Gerber MKII (I'm more interested in the MKI; and came across the MKII sites while looking for info. The MKII seemed to be much better documented; so you shouldn't have too much trouble finding info)

 

[Lineman1]

Thank you - Honestly I have not decided if I will keep the knife or not. I like it, but I have a few similar daggers such as the Spartan V-42 and I do not see this knife ever getting used if it is possibly a collectors item.

 

[Colorodo]

Does it have a serial number?
Found this, interesting http://militarycarryknives.com/Knives.htm#GrayArmorhide

 

[Lineman1]

Yes, 10167 is the SN. I will try to get better pictures tomorrow and post them but I do not have a better camera available at this time. I believe it is the lighter gray handle, it also has the Gerber Sword in Stone logo on the other side with "Portland Ore, USA" underneath.

 

[Lineman1]

I have some updated pictures this morning, in the pictures you can see the dark spots and the light scratches.

 

[Lineman1]

Pictures continued