Rec.knives BM 850 Pearl History

[Daniel Dorn]

Hi all,
I just received one in trade and was wondering the history of this knife. Number made, issue price, reason for existence, etc. It is a beautiful knife and I think I would appreciate it even more, if I knew more about it. By the way, thanks Ted.

Any and all information will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Daniel D.

 

[CK]

Here's a quick rundown of it.
Early in 1997 the regular denizens of the usenet newgroup rec.knives decided to commemorate the group's existence with an official knife. Many discussions went on about what special knife to pick. A BM 850 Pardue with mother of pearl scales was one of the nominees. Informal voting went on until Mark McWillis(then BM VP and rec.knives regular) jumped in and said he could make the Pardue happen. The MOP 850 was a go. Mark needed a minimum of 25 commitments, which was easily done. I don't recall exactly but, payment was collected in November '97 and the knives were finally delivered in early 1998. I believe there were a total of 50 made at $180.00 + $5.00 S&H.
I'm sure someone else here can correct me or add more details about the whole thing.
Also try a Dejanews search for commemorative knife or something similar from around March 1997 to November 1997.

Chi

[This message has been edited by CK (edited 06-27-2000).]

 

[Daniel Dorn]

Thanks CK for the reply. If anyone knows the exact number, that might be nice to know. I also found one for sale right now on ebay. It is sitting around $90 as of 9:00am today, and it still has three days to go. No reserve!
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=364257315

If anyone is interested, I think this is a great knife to have in a collection. The orange peel anodizing on the Ti bolsters and liners is just beautiful, and the pearl is nice and thick with great depth and luster. The regular BM 850 Pearl sells for nearly $300 over on knifecenter.com BTW mine isn't for sale at any price.

Daniel D.