Six knives from the back woods

[button_man]

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About a week and a half ago, I ran into a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy who.... but I could not get hold of the guy at the end of the line... the guy with the knives; so today I drove 125 miles on the chance that I might find him at the dusty, run-down little antiques shop in a back-country hamlet that
he runs a few days a week, opening when he feels like it. Against all the odds, he was there; and I walked out with the following six knives.
I paid somewhat less than 900 for all six, and I will let you guys tell me how I made out.

The 13" AKC with dagger blade is rock solid with no issues at all.
Ditto for the Italian 8.75" (does the 'rostfrei' in italics, stamped at a slant, indicate a certain
time period and/or maker? This knife is not very old regardless.... modern hollow guards, etc. )

The Aerial has a patent date of 1916 on the reverse ricasso; but as Mark Erickson describes on p. 28 & 29 of "Early American Switchblade", it's a
1970s copy of the original knife that his family made at that earlier date. Only 800 of the copies were made, so it's fairly rare. (Some S2S blade wobble)

The Italian 13" transitional does have the swivel-bolster lining, and is rock-solid with no trace of wobble.
This is a massively built knife; I've shown it next to the AKC for comparison.

The Jumbo Jack is also (surprisingly) rock-solid, and all the metal is amazingly shiny and rust-free.

And finally.... yes, the Press Button has seen better days.... a heavily ground blade and a lot of wobble... but it's such a classic,
and so tightly fitted together, and.... well, I just felt that it was struggling to hold on to a little dignity despite having been battered and abused;
and I didn't have the heart to leave it behind. it's the same feeling that Charlie Brown had about that little Christmas tree.

So there you have it..... how did I make out....?

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[button_man]

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[ SECOND GROUP OF PHOTOS: ]

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[Killgar]

I was looking at 13" AKC's just last night. They were being sold for $89.99 at weapons-universe.com (rosewood handles). At least they were advertised as AKC's. Grindworx had them for $99.99 (also rosewood handles).

Here is a link to some Aerials that were sold on arizonacustomknives.com- https://www.arizonacustomknives.com/kni ... -c-mfg-co/

[button_man]

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Kilgar ~ Yes, I saw the 'weapons universe' listing for the AKC -- I was surprised at the price.... it seemed low for an Italian 13" --
--but I also noticed that the listing is marked "sold out". It will be interesting to see prices when anyone actually has these in stock again.
(I only bought the first two knives pictured here because I got them at low prices; it's the older stuff that really got my attention.)

The Arizona site doesn't like my creaky old browser, so it won't let me view anything. What did the Aerials sell for?
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[Killgar]

The Arizona Customs site shows three Aerials sold-

One in 2021 for $395
One in 2020 for $325
One in 2019 for $499

All three were described as "excellent condition". The one in 2019 came with paperwork.

I also see that one sold on AAPK in 2019 for $300. Also described as "excellent".

[button_man]

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Thanks Kilgar..... I appreciate the info! Now I need to figure out the best venue for unloading some of these.
With all due respect to this site, I've noticed that higher prices are often obtained on AAPK.
Does anyone here know of other sites that consistently bring in robust ROI --?

(I have to say that I'm sort of surprised that there aren't more comments on these knives.... when somebody posts
a photo of a few vintage Italian or German pieces they just got, everyone piles in and gushes over them.....
--isn't there any love for the old American knives? I'm not fishing for attention.... it just struck me as a bit odd.)
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[whippersnapper]

FWIW, I wouldn't mind owning any of those Americans. I love them!

I don't think you got taken by what you paid, unless you figure in the $500 in gas to drive the 125 miles...lol

[jim d,]

button_man,

That is a great haul. I have seen Aerials go for more than the values cited above. Real 13 in. AKCs for under 100 today? I'm suspicious...

The Rostfrei stamp was widely used, but I don't think it has been is use much with Italian stilettos for the last 20 years or so. Someone please jump in if you know differently.

Good analogy regardingt the Press Button.

Jim

[button_man]

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Thanks guys..... I wish I could keep them all, but I think that I will probably hang on to the Italian transitional and the Press Button,
and sell off the others. As whip noted, I'll need to sell four of the knives to top off my gas tank....

Jim ~ The aspect of those "rostfrei" stamps that caught my eye is the fact that they are in this sort of italicized script; and the small modern
Italian knife also has it stamped at that upward angle. I haven't seen a lot of that, and I thought it might mean something to somebody here.

Here is a photo of the stamping on the transitional:
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[sammy the blade]

FWIW, I wouldn't mind owning any of those Americans. I love them!

I don't think you got taken by what you paid, unless you figure in the $500 in gas to drive the 125 miles...lol

125 miles for $500, he must have ridden a motorcycle to pick them up.

[NorthCarolinaDude]

Button_Man, those are some nice picks you made. I think your logic on keepers is sound as well. And never worry about the cost of the gas as there is great entertainment in the road trip alone! You could've come back empty-handed but you still got great value in just the act of "getting out among them." Seeing what lays on the tables at such places is half the fun, often more than half!!

Regards the topic of big AKCs, I am also agreed on the suspiciousness of those $99 AKCs that have popped up on and off various sites of somewhat recent years, and their validity. It's a "contested" subject that has been vigorously discussed here on a few occasions that I've followed. I remember Peiper had one with horn scales, I think, and that Bill believed that particular one was a true Italian. And I think I have one as well but will have to dig it out and give it a thorough looking over. Mine is about 20 years old or so and scaled in horn as well. Much of what people noted, difference-wise, was how the stamp presented on these knives, real vs clone. I just did some looking and found a link to one of such discussions which includes much of what I'm referring to:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29318

Nevertheless, well done and congratulations on the acquisitions. It's always a good day when you can bring home some new toys!

Peace.

[button_man]

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According to talkblade.info/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10269 the knife shown at top in this thread is not a genuine AKC.
Disappointing but not entirely unexpected. Oh well, it cost me $75 and I'm sure that I can get at least that much for it.
Does the 8.75" knife (shown 2nd) also look sketchy to anyone....??? Just wondering......

Thanks NCD for the link and other info! I've learned a lot in the past 48 hours, just from owning these six knives!
According to Erickson (p. 42) the small round button on the Jumbo Jack indicates manufacture during the mid-1950s.
Can anyone narrow down the approximate year(s) in which the Press Button might have been made?
All I can figure (from M.E.'s book) is that it's probably pre-1920; but that still leaves a wide range of time.....

I'm going to add a Q for Bill as well..... in the photo of the transitional ricasso, you can see a small rectangular slot cut in
to the end of the stag -- I don't think I've seen this on modern stag scales. Why was this done? Surely there is a reason
related to the functioning of the knife....?
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[jim d,]

There are many variations of the Rostfrei stamp across many knife models. It would be interesting if anyone knows how to correlate a given Rostfrei stamp style with a given maker and approximate timeframe.

NCD - if you have owned the AKC knife for 20 years, then I think there is a very low probability that it is a counterfeit. I don't remember when the issue first arose, but I don't think it has been 20 years. I do remember being involved in an incident regarding counterfeit Leverlettos at the 2012 BLADE show, and seem to remember that the issue had been around for just a few years then.

Jim

[whippersnapper]

That slanted rostfrie stamp on the horn one is seen a lot on the BO/BC stilettos. I would guess from the 70's
(maybe).

The slot on the stag is just milled clearance for the button mechanism to teter up and release the blade.

[button_man]

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Just saw a similar transitional on AAPK -- BUT only 9" -- asking price is $ 499 !!!
https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/ca ... stag-mint-

whip ~ You lost me at "teter up....the blade" -- what exactly does this mean?
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