Old Knife or Just a Modern Abused Knife?

R

runscott

Joined
Mar 12, 2023
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269
I picked up this knife because it looked like it would be fun to practice my restoration skills on, but I don't know enough about old knives to know if this is old, or if it is just a modern abused knife - I've seen similar-looking knives from the 1960's that were in about the same condition.

Is this one worth restoring, or is it garbage? (there are no tang stamps).

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I would say it’s fairly old, but in the current condition, it’s no museum piece. If it were mine I would practice on it, looks as if someone has tried before you already, any value it would have being left in “historical condition” is already long gone, so enjoy it for what you bought it for and make it better.

Edited to add: not everything that is old is worth more, thanks to tv, many people think and hope they are sitting on some rare historical artifact that’s worth a fortune, when in reality, most old stuff is just old.
 
Rode hard and put up wet ... old
It has no history you nor I are aware of, so there is little value intrinsic or otherwise
One of those you can feel free to do whatever you like with ... not going to ruin it. Well, maybe not. Good Luck !!!
... just don't delete those pictures. You'll need them for the "before and after" post later ;)
 
BJE said:
I would say it’s fairly old, but in the current condition, it’s no museum piece. If it were mine I would practice on it, looks as if someone has tried before you already, any value it would have being left in “historical condition” is already long gone, so enjoy it for what you bought it for and make it better.

Edited to add: not everything that is old is worth more, thanks to tv, many people think and hope they are sitting on some rare historical artifact that’s worth a fortune, when in reality, most old stuff is just old.
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I know it's not worth much - I was just curious if we had anyone on this forum who could give me an approximate vintage.
My thinking when I saw it was that it would test my restoration skills in several areas, and that it can be brought back to life. I just was completely unsure as to age. Sounds like, based on comments, that we can't get a good age range based on the characteristics of the knife.

edited to add: Also, I've been buying, selling and restoring old collectibles, as a business, since the 1990's. Just not knives. I have no misguided idea that a beat-up knife with no identification marks is a rare and historical artifact. I was just hoping someone here could give me some age information. I asked prior to restoration because my restoration efforts might cover up some characteristics that might help those who know about old knives to give me a date range.

But I do appreciate the comments - they confirmed my initial thoughts that it's beat-up and a good practice piece.
 
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Here's one I bought the same day, that can be dated to 1880s or older. It got me into the 'old knife' mentality, and a little while later I bought the one that is the subject of this thread. This one has a solid lock-up and no issues other than blade patina, so no restoration will be done.

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What if any ideas about age did the folks have that you bought the knives from?
How is that one dated to the 1880's (or older)?
 
BrotherJim said:
What if any ideas about age did the folks have that you bought the knives from?
How is that one dated to the 1880's (or older)?
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For each knife the seller just said "old".

Regarding the second one - I thought it would be interesting to hear some of the experts tell us what the characteristics of the knife tell them about its age. It could be that it's so generic that no one can confidently estimate an age.

As I said earlier, I know almost nothing about old knives, so that should tell you something.
 
It has what appear to be copper pins...that age it older ...more than if it was made in the 80s ...does it look older than 1970? Not to me...It has not been cared for but that look is easy to achieve on the newest knife with a grinder....The wood looks about 40 or 50 yo....but theres much older stuff that appears new....The bail went missing a while ago...
Any stamping or markings with writing on the blade or tang?...extreme close ups help...
Cheers.....anyway...heres some pics of its ancestry....
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But then it could be a Pakistani knockoff....need some evidence...where did you get ? Who off? How old were they ? Who did it belong to ?
If it was me that garage sale guy would be in the garage...strapped to a chair...light shining in his face....me standing over him with a big hypodermic syringe...squirting the sodium pentathol ...saying
"Perhaps zis vill make you talk! Americaner."
 
meako said:
It has what appear to be copper pins...that age it older ...more than if it was made in the 80s ...does it look older than 1970? Not to me...It has not been cared for but that look is easy to achieve on the newest knife with a grinder....The wood looks about 40 or 50 yo....but theres much older stuff that appears new....The bail went missing a while ago...
Any stamping or markings with writing on the blade or tang?...extreme close ups help...
Cheers.....anyway...heres some pics of its ancestry....
Click to expand...
Thanks! Click on those images - they are massive. There are no stamps or markings anywhere on the knife.

I'll assume it was made in Pakistan in the '70s and then artificially aged so that the seller could get a dumb 'new guy' to pay too much for it :) By the way - I DID pay more than I thought it was worth: it had so many things wrong with it that I was dying to take a shot at fixing. To me it looked like an ideal knife to work on.

...and when I'm done I'll practice restoring techniques on it (leaving the blade alone because I think it looks cool) and then use it to slice hard salami.
 
meako said:
But then it could be a Pakistani knockoff....need some evidence...where did you get ? Who off? How old were they ? Who did it belong to ?
If it was me that garage sale guy would be in the garage...strapped to a chair...light shining in his face....me standing over him with a big hypodermic syringe...squirting the sodium pentathol ...saying
"Perhaps zis vill make you talk! Americaner."
Click to expand...
meako meako have you been out in the sun again without your hat?? 🤔 🤣 🤣
 
runscott said:
Thanks for all of the responses to my question. Here are photos of the 'restored' knife - I tried to fill holes and cracks and work off the rough edges, but leave as much character as possible. The blade locks up real tight. I did nothing to the blade other than polish with Puma Paste. There were a lot of striations in the metal that I thought I might want to look at later, so I left them alone. I built up most of the bail hole, but still have some work to do - crack is filled and stabilized.

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Could you edit this knife out of the Lambsfoot thread please? Thanks :) :thumbsup:
 
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