Tang Stamp: unusual, new to me.

oregon

oregon

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This is an old blade stamp used in the mid 40s. This knife has been around on the auction sites for awhile. It is a nice 40s Hoyt Buck made fixed blade, but the asking price doesn't equate.
 
Thank you kindly mb. Odd font in that stamp threw me off. Does anyone have something similar on the tang of a proven Buck fixed blade?
 
Here is a 107 fish knife made by Hoyt some time after 1947. Its not quite as rusty as the photo above but same time frame. This one is cool cause you can partially read the file blade Co. name that the knife blade was forged from.



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The target tang stamp is cropped in order to avoid problems. However, the rounded font type is strange, unique and unusual in my experience. It is nothing like the stamp on your fish knife.
 
Just pop your knife and sheath into a mailer and send it to me so I can better study the stamp. Don't worry I won't rockwell test it. :) Thank you for the lesson mb that you came by dearly. Much appreciated. You are all right. You know... I should have picked up a Hoyt Buck fixed blade and sheath while I was at OKCA so I could have a reference point from which to judge all other early Buck knives. With Joe Houser there to authenticate I would have had it made...
 
oregon said:
The target tang stamp is cropped in order to avoid problems. However, the rounded font type is strange, unique and unusual in my experience. It is nothing like the stamp on your fish knife.
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Why all the mystery Steve? Why not just show the tang stamp in context, IE showing the position and what it's on?
Is it on a knife, razor or chisel or what???
 
oregon said:
Just pop your knife and sheath into a mailer and send it to me so I can better study the stamp. Don't worry I won't rockwell test it. :) Thank you for the lesson mb that you came by dearly. Much appreciated. You are all right. You know... I should have picked up a Hoyt Buck fixed blade and sheath while I was at OKCA so I could have a reference point from which to judge all other early Buck knives. With Joe Houser there to authenticate I would have had it made...
Click to expand...

I think that the knife in question and any other knife needs to be looked at as a whole as apposed to just looking at a blade stamp to authenticate a knife. Blade stamps will differ but the workmenship is always very similar.
 
Would you make a ruling on the target knife, given the novel stamp, as a BUCK? The cartoonish font of the stamp gives me pause.
 
You have to again look at the whole knife to determine the maker. 1) the handle material, lucite and aluminum, Buck knives were made of disks of stacked lucite and the pommels were made of aluminum. 2) Blade, Buck knives were made of old carbon steer file blade and saw blades. Carbon steel file blades are super hard already and have a tendency to rust quickly. 3) Blade stamp, In the 40s they didn't have all of the high end tooling we have today. They probably had to make the stamps the used to mark their blades. They couldn't just go down to Home Depot and buy a set of letter stamps. After stamping 100 knives you would imagine that stamp would wear down, widen out and cause the impression to blur. There is an explanation for the stamp. Thats why you have to look at it as whole. There are variations to every knife and thats why collectors have something to talk about. I will dig out a photo that had me questioning authenticity.
 
This is a Lignum Vitae chef knife made by Al Buck in the early 50s. In the 50s LV was a common handle material, the blade was made of an old saw blade the pommel, made of aluminum, with leather spacers, again used in knives of the 50s and 60s but the stamp was done with an electric pencil. This was how Al signed some of his work. You have to be open to differences but cautious as well. Its threads like this that educate folks and is what collecting is all about.



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Thank you kindly mb. You are too kind to go to so much effort and it is much appreciated. Eye opening information.
 
thats what we are here for. This stuff doesn't just come to us in our dreams, its long hours reading and discussing the minute details, learning the millions of facets to collecting a certain style and brand of knife. I have chosen the 100 and 300 series knives to learn the in's and out's of. It takes years to know what you are talking about, I still don't know as much as I would like to. I find myself making mistakes I shouldn't, sometimes it costs me money. These are the lessons hard learned and not forgotten.
 
The seller of the knife in question says that it was authenticated by "the Buck family" at the recent Oregon show on 4/15/2012. From what I've gathered, the only "Buck family" that attended that show was Joe Houser and his wife, so it should be a simple matter of questioning Joe about it.
 
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