Craftsman 9490 Cattle Knife

[kootenay joe]

I recently got this from ebay. The price was low. I wanted to have a closer look at it.
I will post my thoughts later. I would like to hear what the 'seasoned' knifers have to say about it.
thanks, kj

[herbva]

In the 3rd picture, it looks like both liners may be broken or cracked and the springs look quite pitted. Why use carbon steel liners and springs with SS blades? Otherwise, I'm not familiar with these.

[jwwood]

The handles don't match. One is lighter in color and different jigging, Unless its a bad pic, the tip of the clip blade looks funny. What's your thoughts Roland?

[Gunsil]

Blades are carbon, not SS. Roland, I think one or both sides have replaced scales. Mine all also have shields. Here are a few of mine for comparison. I also don't think yours is a "Craftsman" those usually carry a Craftsman etch. They were sold by Sears & Roebuck, just not under the Craftsman name.

[kootenay joe]

Thanks for posting. I have been collecting bone handled Craftsman Sta-Sharp knives for a few years.
Note on one side the handle pins have space around them. To me it indicates these are not the original pins, i.e. replacement handles.
Liners at spine: one is missing a small piece and the other is cracked, both where the spring pivot goes through, so likely not the original spring pivot pin.
Springs show pitting and have been buffed, yet blades look shiny, does not match up.
Blades & bolsters have been buffed yet master blade has a clearly visible etch which does say "Stainless". Is etch original ? maybe not. Or maybe it is and blade came out of another knife.
Here is a link to the ebay listing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sta-Sharp-Stai ... true&rt=nc
His pictures are good and i should have looked at them with a more discerning eye.
This knife is likely a total 're-build'. When in hand it just gives one the feeling that the parts are not original to each other. An all original knife gives one the feeling that all parts belong together. I'm sure many here have had a similar feeling when holding a re-built knife. It is easier to recognize a re-build in hand than in pictures.
I have messaged seller and told him that this knife is not all original and am waiting to hear back. I have bought many good knives from this seller so did not say "Fake" in my feedback, giving him benefit of the doubt that he missed the obvious clues.
kj

[kootenay joe]

Gunsil, those are very nice examples of bone handled Sta-Sharp knives. The 5 blade is very hard to find in such good condition.
kj

[Gunsil]

Thanks Roland! Sorry, but I didn't see the stainless etch when I first looked at the pics. KA-BAR used stainless blades and carbon springs for a time, that part is likely correct.

[kootenay joe]

Seller got back to me and asked that i return the knife and he will refund and pay return shipping. Very good seller and of many buys here this is the only knife that has not been 'correct'. I will pay the return shipping because i bear some of the responsibility. It was a case of my wanting the knife to be correct rather than objectively assessing the pictures.
I want to be clear: this seller is honest and fair and when listing many knives every week sometimes a re-work can get through the seller's inspection. No one is 100% correct all the time.
kj

[Gunsil]

Glad to hear everything working out well. George is a member here, and I have known him for many years and he does have an excellent reputation.

[knifeaholic]

To me; the OP knife looks like it has authentic original blades, but the handles are modern bone that you might get from a company like Culpepper - note the light coloring and the odd (for an old original) diagonal jigging. I have many original Sears knives in my collection, and I have never seen bone like that on any of them (or on any other vintage knife, for that matter).

But the blades do look to be authentic originals.

[kootenay joe]

I have a few Sta-Sharp knives with very light colored handles, with the vintage jigging.
I think the blades have been buffed and the pen blade might be down some ?
Also bolsters have been buffed which can hide evidence that knife has been apart.
Maybe it is just handles but i do wonder if it has been apart.
Would be great to see another example of this Craftsman 9490.
Sears had made a vast number of pattern variations. Every big old Sears catalog (about 4 per year ?) shows a different variation of the patterns that were shown in the previous catalog. For awhile i thought i would try to collect all the bone Sta-Sharp knives but soon found out there are hundreds of them.
kj

[glennbad]

The bolsters have been satin-brushed to hide evidence of something. Look how the edge of the bolsters next to the bone are rough, but the rest of the bolster is smoother. One of the bolsters even appears to have grind marks that were pretty deep from a dremel or belt sander.

Also, as Steve pointed out, that bone looks "newer", possibly poorly dyed.