Help I.D. this swing guard?

[Twobit]

I'd appreciate it if someone could tell me what I have here. I bought it on Blade Auction around twenty years ago. Not interested in selling but would like to know if it's even possible to know from the pictures if it's really a Jndiana piece or not and what its approximate value might be. It's buffalo horn (purportedly) with a small flaw near the button. Thanks,
Luke

[gravknife]

Twobit

Think these may have connections to F Beltrame and were made circa 1980s -1990s,

Type in" Swinguard Stainless Italy" on the search here and there was a topic with these some years back ,showing examples texans123 had.

It's a nice swinger anyway ,I like the looks of it.

[Twobit]

Thanks, Ian. The name was pretty prevalent on the auction site at the time I bought this one, but it was presented as Jndiana, if I'm recalling correctly.

[john]

I agree with Ian. It’s not an Jndiana.

[Twobit]

What sort of hallmarks are present or absent for you to make this assessment? I'm not disputing you, understand. I'm just ignorant of such subtle signs. If there's no maker's stamp, I don't have the knowledge to say something like "single pin in the lower bolster means so and so made it and two means this other so and so made it". I'm simplifying but I think you catch my meaning.

[gravknife]

Twobit

It can only be an assessment ,a shot in the dark so to speak.

Jndianas had many marks ,chiefs head ,440B Inox ,as did some Beltrame knives ,Rostfrei etc.
It could be either, but I leant towards the Beltrame with the bayonet blade ,could be totally wrong so lets see what the real experts say .
Unless a blade is stamped with a particular name its a bit of a minefield pinning down a specific maker ,and even then some added their stamps to others work ,or to the cottage insustry pieces from Maniago.
Check out Jndiana swingers here on search .A lot of these I believe had dagger blades ,or flatgrinds ....dont worry i am still learning here everyday and often get things wrong
Some here are gurus that go right down to the patent sheets ,catalogues etc ,I never got that far yet ,lets see if they can clear it up somewhat .

[Twobit]

Sounds good, Ian.

[Bill DeShivs]

Jndiana was not a manufacturer. They were a seller.

[gravknife]

There you go Twobit ..shows what I know and have now learned

Aways thought Jndiana was a maker when I seen them posted here ,so an example of a retailer adding an appealing stamp to an italian knife .

Bill ,who would you suggest made this knife ?Or is it one of those we just can't pin down .,ie parts assembled in Italy .

[Bill DeShivs]

Looks like a Frank Beltrame.

[gravknife]

Bill ...glad your here ,I'm learning bit by bit.

[Twobit]

I appreciate you gents' input. I'm mainly just curious. Speaking of curiosity, Bill, I've been wanting to ask you this since our first exchange; is it just happy coincidence that a man whose profession is building the "shivs" was given such a moniker at birth, or is that a nomme de guerre, so to speak?

[rithvich]

Did Frank make the 9" swinguards? I always assumed it was another Maniago maker. I know Frank made the 11" and I always noticed a quality difference between the 9" and 11" modern swinguards.

Are there 9" with Frank's stamp? Maybe I just never owned one. In general I always felt the modern 11" swinguards stayed somewhat on par with the vintage ones but the modern 9" took a big drop in quality from vintage.

[Bill DeShivs]

You know, I didn't notice that the knife wasn't an 11".
I don't know who made those.

[Killgar]

For whatever it's worth, member Jackalope posted pics a few years back of a 9" swing guard with an identical tang mark ("STAINLESS" at a slight slant over "ITALY"), but it also has the Armando Beltrame "AB" over "ITALY" mark on the reverse side.

Pics