How will your heirs deal with your knives?

M

MikeH

Joined
Oct 18, 2001
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Teller in my Credit Union handed me a card today, asked me to call this recently widowed lady who needed some advice on disposal of her late husband's knife collection.
I called. He left her with about 40 firearms and 400 knives. Folders and fixed blades. The guns are all going to her husband's son, but she wants to sell the knives. She knew there were a lot of Case knives, and many other brands. She is checking to see if she has any Busses and will call me back.
I advised her that there were people out there who would deal honestly with her, and people who would like to con her out of her knives for a pittance, so she should be careful while at the same time being being realistic about values. I can help her with Busse values, but I am lost on the Cases and other knives such as Randalls that she might have. I will do the best I can.

This event has got me thinking about how my family would cope with disposal of my guns and knives, since at age 61 check-out time is closer than it ever has been before. My family wouldn't even know the model names of my knives and how to describe them for sale, let alone how to price them realistically. Handled properly, they should easily pay four years of in-state college tuition for my grandson. At some point I will have to start to let go of them, but not yet.:D

So, what arrangements have you made? The best idea I can come up with is a photo inventory with current suggested prices, and the names of some Hogs I would trust to give them reliable updates.
 
MikeH said:
So, what arrangements have you made? The best idea I can come up with is a photo inventory with current suggested prices, and the names of some Hogs I would trust to give them reliable updates.
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Don't forget the Excel sheet with price paid and "market" price. Might not be a bad idea to go ahead and write up those descriptions for an eBay auction.

And make sure you mention me in your will. :D
 
I was thinking an itemized list in the safe along with descriptions and market values. Pics would be nice too...don't know if I'd ever get around to cross referencing a bunch of pics to the list though. Writing a short description on any of the blades with cardboard sheaths would also be helpful.
 
rt014 said:
Pics would be nice too...don't know if I'd ever get around to cross referencing a bunch of pics to the list though.
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You can easily insert images into Word files or Excel files. :thumbup:
 
My daughter and I have discussed this. Current inventory, pics, and the names of some trusted Hogs to help sort it out.

You'll want to keep them off the books, so far as taxes go :foot:
 
If any of mine survive (knifes that is), I'd turn em over before I die, later on I'd prolly need only one.
 
Funny you bring this up, Mike. My grandmother died two weeks ago and my mother is the executor of her will. The talk of her possessions being split up and handed down has been somewhat surreal.

It, too, got me thinking about my knives. My hope is that my two daughters, who are 8 and 4 now, will remember certain knives that dad always used, and always loved--and they will hold the most value to them. Some I hope they will sell, others pass on to family members, but I hope there's those one or two they would hold onto because they love them.....and they love them because I loved them.
 
My wife has been instructed to contact the members of Team No Regrets in the event of my passing. There are a few knives that must be offered back to their original owners, but the rest are fair game I guess. I would trust these guys to tell her the fair value of what I have and I imagine they would help her liquidate them as well. I know I would do the same for them.
 
Make sure that your family knows that the collection can be professionally appraised for a nominal fee prior to auction/sale. Better yet, keep the ones you truly love, the users, pass those on and sell the rest now. Give them the money when they need it or buy them things that they are intersted in and will cherrish as a gift from you. Make a difference while you still walk upright.
 
jimmyjones said:
You'll want to keep them off the books, so far as taxes go :foot:
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At least as far as Busses go, gifting them in such a way that would trigger a tax liability would likely be much harder than you know. The gift limit way back when I was in law school was 10K/person/year. If anything, I'm sure it has gone up since then.

Before I go, I may give each of my three boys one or two knives. They won't be the safe queens, but the ones that I have used in my life--the ones with histories and stories behind them. I think those will the more valuable ones in their eyes anyway. Since I will be alive, I will know their relative values and make sure they each get a fair cut.

As for the remainder, I may leave those to my wife with a list of what I think is a fair price for them. The same goes for my firearms (unless again, the boys get one or two of them). It really should not be too hard to make a list of reasonable values while you are alive that will be fairly accurate after you are gone. Just make one now and then update it once every year or so.
 
on_the_edge said:
At least as far as Busses go, gifting them in such a way that would trigger a tax liability would likely be much harder than you know.
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Who's to say that your wife didn't own the Busses along with you?
 
I think that a spread sheet would be considered a must, as that would be the simplest way to keep track of all of them. I also think that "professional" appraisal of Busse knives is a tricky issue, you would have to have contact info for someone who actually knows what Busse's are going for. A knife expert who does not know this would be useless. I see that most of the posts here so far are eternal optimists, if anything ever happens to one of you guys I will stake out the pawn shops near your homes. Anybody can plan for death of old age, it takes a real man to be prepared for the unexpected. The spread sheet, photo's clarifying each item, and contact info for a couple of trustworthy HOGs should be on file no matter what age you are. I personally hope that my children would be able to enjoy most of the knives that I have, but hope that any extras would get sold for a fair price.
 
My Wife and Kids have lists to keep the arguing to a minimum.

My Wife gets most of the "Shiny ones" and the Hood Knife.

My Kids get the rest, they will prolly argue about the users and play pick one at a time from the pile for the rest.

My Youngest (24) is interested mainly in the users, He currently has 6 or so I think(all but one were gifts) the 26 year old Has many, and wants many more to help fund His retirement
 
I'm leaving mine to the HOGS I like here on the forums...

Hmmm, now who gets the Chuckette'?
 
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