Kissing Crane Fraud ? (vintage) advise

[Claudester]

Hey Guys I need some help with this, I need all the information I can get,
so all you gurus come out and play.

I recently purchased several Kissing Crane manual stilettos, these are what would be the size of the KC46, 47 and 48. The ad had a
picture showing only two cranes on the tang with no model number or made in Germany, also no etching on the blade nor is there a
medallion on any of the handles which were advertised as being horn. After I received the knives I noticed that the tangs had been ground
down with only the two cranes left on the tang. You can barley see some of the lettering that wasn't ground down. The work was done
well and blades almost look factory finished. The handles which were advertised as horn but I think are wood but I am not sure because they
are very dark if not almost black but look like they have wood grain. I wrote the seller and he told me first that these were not touched or
ground down and that they had to be horn because wood handles were only put on in the mid 70s and these were pre 70s. He also said that
knives from the early sixties to 1972 had only the two cranes. I emailed him again only this time with pictures showing the area that was ground
down and where you could see the K from Kissing Crane left on the tang. I asked him to tell me now after seeing the very clear pictures if they
were not ground and rebuffed and would he kindly refunded my money. Below is his last response.

I have again checked with
some dealers about the crane knives & again have been told that they
originated at the factory ground down & sold as SECONDS. I believe that your
expertise should have alerted you from the descriptions that these knives
were not what you wanted.



Does anyone know if this could be true about the seconds and could it be true maybe because someone forgot to put the medallions on the
handles. If the guy has given me a snow job I want to do something about it so I am looking for as much information as possible before I go
any further with it. Sorry this is so long but I have cut a lot of the saga out already. I will be putting this on several forums to see what kind of info
I can get.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.

The Claudester

[switchman1]

Hey Claudster:I truely cant say about the kissing cranes but many years ago I bought a pile of factory seconds to practice on, take apart, put new handles on, etc. and every knife the tang stamps were ground off so you couldnt tell who made the knifeIhope this helps