Three more guardian clones

[Twobit]

I went and ordered three more of these to play with. Red, cream, and another in black. Pictured here with my shell pullers, swinger, and the two I had already. I did some sanding on the corners of the faux stag and think it's a visual improvement. Still doesn't look like real stag, but less cheesy than before to my eye.

[sammy the blade]

Nice looking knives, is the swing guard a rizzy?

[gravknife]

Look great together Luke .

The collection is steadily growing ,and looks nice with all those scale variants .

Wait till the italian switches start grabbing you like they did me ....I only wanted a Johnny Cade to start with aswell mate .

[Twobit]

Thanks, Ian. I'd had Italians for around twenty years but this style really grabbed me. I've always loved swing guards but the lever, the wider frame and blade, and the swing guard speaks to me somehow. With the exception of the 9" swinger, I've had all of these for less than a year- actually less than half a year. Most of them since I joined this forum in November.
Sammy, the swing guard you're asking about is a genuine Italian of unknown make. The only marking on it is "Stainless Italy" stamped on the tang. I've had it for somewhere around twenty years so it predates the "Chinese Italians" that have come in in the last four or five years. I bought it on the Blade Auction site somewhere around 2003.

[john]

Awesome group of knives. The unmarked swinger MIGHT be an AKC. I recall seeing knives that had the same blade style and body shape stamped AKC. Someone here may know who made it.

[Twobit]

Yes, John I believe it could be AKC. I've also seen an AGA Campolin that I was unable to find any difference from this one other than the tang stamp. I've already asked for help identifying it a while ago and nobody was able to pin it down definitively.

[whippersnapper]

You got a herd of them swingers.

[Twobit]

You got a herd of them swingers.

[JulesVane]

The originals aren't an easy find these days. If you do, usually very expensive. I foolishly traded away my traditional stag Guardian, but was able to hold on to these two. I'm not even positive about the scale materials...

[Twobit]

Jules: maybe ebony and pakka? Great looking knives whatever they're wearing!

[Twobit]

I'm wondering if it wasn't marked because of the flaw in the front scale? It was a "defect" auction because of this flaw pictured below. Maybe the maker was okay with selling it but not with putting their mark on one with such a flaw? I didn't think it was an issue at all and set about making sure I won the bidding.

[jim d,]

Here is my not a clone 911 commemorative guardian.

Jim

911 019.jpg (892.8 KiB) Viewed 5960 times

911 027.jpg (941.02 KiB) Viewed 5960 times

[Twobit]

Nice, Jim!

[jerryk25]

They don't inspect knives. . .and then later mark them if they "meet spec"
The horn blemish happened after the fact. . .and can be polished out.

The unmarked blade simply means the knife was not expected to be exported.
or was not part of a contracted lot a salesman negotiated .

More than likely it was the end of a production run, and they pieced together leftovers.
When you make 200 knives for a specific order, you make a percentage over.
That way if a machine grabs and eats a part, marring it too much to be sales worthy.
You still have enough parts to fill the order.

Then you have bits and pieces accumulating.
You don't want to lock up your money in materials, or time on a machine
by leaving parts set on the shelf.
So. you mark it with the minimum stamping . . ."Stainless" or "Rostfrei" or "440 S"
because you know a previous buyer who will return might pick it up.

For a long time everyone was getting 11 inch swingers, that had a 9 inch crossguard.
One arm would stick out longer. . .because the hole was pre-drilled for a 9''.
Nobody asked for that. . . It was not a "design" or "new model" . . .
The shop simply did not want to invest in a new lot of the longer crossguards,
and they make a bunch of weird crossguard 11 inch knives.

[Twobit]

That makes sense, Jerryk.