World trade center knives?

I

Ilovetoolsteel

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Jul 28, 2003
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There were some knives made using steel from the WTC back in 2003, Did these knives ever sell? There were threads in here a few years ago about the auctions but the bidding never got near the reserve. There were 5 or 6 knives in the set. I remember Terzuola, Crawford, Possibly Fisk and Hibben.
 
I think there was a Spyderco D'Allara Rescue made with an image of the World Trade Center made from steel from the site. I imagine they sold quickly, but I don't have any real information on that.

-Jeffrey
 
I know the group you're talking about. I may have a pic of them as well somewhere.

Jeffrey, Ilovetoolsteel is talking about a group of blades that were made out of steel from the WTC by different blade smiths. I'm not sure if they ever sold or not, though I guess they did :confused: ???

I'll see if I can find a pic.

ETA: I found the pics. I have one of them in the box that was made for them, and a group shot (though not a good one). Anyone who wants to upload them is welcome to!
 
There was a set made. It did not sell. My understanding is that it has been donated to the organization that is doing the 9/11 memorial or something like that.

In my opinion, it was improperly marketed. They set the minimum bid way to high. There's a certain art to that. The big collectors don't want to stick their kneck out to far to be the first bidder. And parish the though that you're the only bidder and end up with this thing that apparently nobody else wanted. No, they should have set the minimum lower making the opening bid less risky and guaranteeing at least a bit of competition. At these price levels in any market, it's as much about the buying as the object. Also, they required an elaborate pre-approval process for bidders and quite frankly I didn't want to have to get my bank to issue a certified letter of credit for me and so forth. The names of the folks who might pay five or even maybe six figures for a set of knives is short and well-known. You don't ask these people to go to the bank and get letters. Furthermore, the knife market in general is a hand-shake market. I've bought five-figure knives myself on a handshake. That's the way we do things in this market.
 
There were 7 knives in the set and they were on display at the 2003 Blade show. The knifemakers were Pat Crawford, Bob Dozier, Allen Elishewitz, Jerry Fisk, Gil Hibben, Mel Pardue, and Bob Terzuola. Each maker was give a couple of pieces of steel to work from. I know Gil Hibben made two knives, one for the set and one that he has in his personal collection.

The project was conceived by New York firefighter Keith Kaiser whose fellow firefighter and knife collector, Christian Regenhard, was killed when one of the towers fell on his fire truck. The reverse side of Hibben's knife is scrimshawed with the Brooklyn Ladder Company 131 insignia. The front side depicts the now-famous image of firefighters raising the American flag at ground zero.

The knives are housed in a custom cocobolo rosewood case designed by Tomway with the New York skyline etched in the glass.

You can see pictures of the knives on my web site here: http://www.cartertown.com/Knives/Hibben/Custom/my_photos.htm

I don't know who has the set now.
 
Gollnick said:
There was a set made. It did not sell. My understanding is that it has been donated to the organization that is doing the 9/11 memorial or something like that.

In my opinion, it was improperly marketed. They set the minimum bid way to high. There's a certain art to that. The big collectors don't want to stick their kneck out to far to be the first bidder. And parish the though that you're the only bidder and end up with this thing that apparently nobody else wanted. No, they should have set the minimum lower making the opening bid less risky and guaranteeing at least a bit of competition. At these price levels in any market, it's as much about the buying as the object. Also, they required an elaborate pre-approval process for bidders and quite frankly I didn't want to have to get my bank to issue a certified letter of credit for me and so forth. The names of the folks who might pay five or even maybe six figures for a set of knives is short and well-known. You don't ask these people to go to the bank and get letters. Furthermore, the knife market in general is a hand-shake market. I've bought five-figure knives myself on a handshake. That's the way we do things in this market.
Click to expand...

I can't argue with any of that. I will add that only 2 or 3 of the knives were embelished. the rest seemed like stock patterns the makers made. Thst sort of defeats the purpose of a commemerative knife. There should have been more engraving and the like. After all these knives were never going to be used. If you compare these knives to the knife they made from Bill Morans last blade there is a night and day difference.
 
I don't know, I think they kind of fit the whole response thus-far quite nicely. I'm speaking of the response in the "memorial" sense. I watched an episode of Penn & Teller's Bull$#!+ on Showtime about this and it was sickening. The whole idea of a really meaningful memorial has become a farse at the official level. So, it could be that the makers were asked to do something sedate, and nothing too flashy. Personally, I wondered how they picked which makers got on the list. I have to say, though, that when I first saw them I too was struck by the ordinary nature of the knives that were in the set. I mean, if they WERE heavily embellished then it would make it harder to copy them. As it is, some of those look no different than stock models. Oh well :rolleyes: .
 
I spoke to Keith Kaiser at the 2006 Blade Show. He is the firefighter that conceived the idea and provided the steel to the knifemakers. He said the set is now in a museum in Albany, NY. Much better than locked away in a private collection IMO.
 
Spyderco did make a # D'allara 9/11 model with pieces of tower #1 embedded in the handle. The pieces of tower #1 had the Manhattan skyline EDC in them. A special handle was made, and after completion the mold for the handle slabs was destroyed.
There was one # knife made for every victim in the 9/11 attacks.
They are rather rare because no one seem to want to part from them.
 
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