All About Pocket Knives

Just got this knife back from being resurrected from the dead. This rare 6539 W. R. Case & Sons sowbelly with 3 backsprings had the most wear on a knife I’ve ever seen. Now, it’s a complete and usable knife. It will always be a restored knife which would affect the value, but the alternative was to have basically nothing.

Don't know what you paid for the work, but I doubt it is worth much more now than before the "restoration". A knife with a bunch of welded on blades is still just an old knife with not a lot of collector value in these parts.

I appreciate the input Gunsil, but I respectfully completely disagree. The one who restored this knife does amazing work, and takes great care to use the old high carbon steel blades to weld onto original tangs. The way the knife was before, it was truly worthless. I’ve already had numerous collectors asking to buy it. Before the restoration, I doubt that would have happened. Again, I know to purists for originality, this wouldn’t be the knife for them; however, to many others, I think they appreciate the restoration efforts.

58chevy348 wrote:I appreciate the input Gunsil, but I respectfully completely disagree. The one who restored this knife does amazing work, and takes great care to use the old high carbon steel blades to weld onto original tangs. The way the knife was before, it was truly worthless. I’ve already had numerous collectors asking to buy it. Before the restoration, I doubt that would have happened. Again, I know to purists for originality, this wouldn’t be the knife for them; however, to many others, I think they appreciate the restoration efforts.

I personally totally agree with your decision of restoration, regardless of costs.
Obviously, there are some individuals (members) look at our hobby as financial means only, they miss out on many enjoyment of our hobby as a whole.

From reading here on AAPK in the counterfeit forum, I was under the impression that welding other blades onto tangs like this was a fraudulent practice. Or is not disclosing to a prospective buyer that it has been welded the fraudulent part?

If we take that approach to restorations, then restored cars are fraudulent. I personally would never try to pass of a repaired knife as original, and I think seasoned collectors would know the knife was restored. Sure, if you find a newer collector and try to convince him the knife has never been repaired, then I guess you could say that’s fraudulent or immoral.

In the not to distant future, having metal 3D printed will be an option. So adding metal back to blades and even creating blades will happen. Hope I live long enough to see how it all works out. Is this bad for collectors? We shall see.

Great job on the restoration. Amazing skill of the knife mechanic. Glad you have it and shared it.

58chevy348 wrote:If we take that approach to restorations, then restored cars are fraudulent. I personally would never try to pass of a repaired knife as original, and I think seasoned collectors would know the knife was restored. Sure, if you find a newer collector and try to convince him the knife has never been repaired, then I guess you could say that’s fraudulent or immoral.

I am sure you must realize that you, I, and everyone reading this is not going to live forever and sooner or later the knife will go into someone else's hands. If they were to sell the knife, will they know that the blades were welded and pass the info on, will they know the blades were welded and NOT pass the information on, or will they not know that they have been welded? One thing I am not clear on, are the blade sections that were welded to the original tang from Case knives or some other brand? If they were from another brand of knife, say Camillus or Schrade and were welded to Case stamped tangs, then why wouldn't that be considered fraudulent? People are going to look at the tang stamp and say "this is a Case knife", when in fact parts of it are not.

I personally don't see a problem with the restoration work done on this knife. The OP has every right to do as he pleases since he is the sole owner. Only if he were to present this knife as all original and not a restored knife would he be in the wrong. I've got an Uncle Henry LB7 that I had amber stag bone handles installed on a few years ago. It is no longer in original condition and I guess when I'm dead and gone someone might be ignorant enough to mistake it for some rare factory build. With that as a possibility, would anyone think that I've done something unethical ? If not, then what's the difference between replacing handles and replacing blades ? It's not the modification of the knife that creates the problem. It's the dishonest individual who deliberately deceives others who creates the problem and none of us can be held accountable for the dishonorable acts of others.

Some good points made here. As I said in one of the multiple threads the OP has posted about this knife, I’m all for restoring old knives, as long as they are honestly and clearly represented as such. The exception to that would be an old knife restored using only period-correct parts (like from a donor knife for example) from the same manufacturer as the knife being restored, in which case I would consider the knife as authentic.

It’s great to see an old knife restored. I’m all for preserving history. Where I have problems is as has been pointed out, when the owner passes the “restored-with-non-original-parts” knife on to someone else, either through sale, gift, inheritance, or other means. WHICH WILL HAPPEN EVENTUALLY!. If said restored knife is not clearly and prominently marked as such, it will eventually be recirculated by someone who, knowingly or not, represents it as being authentic. It will happen!

The OP has stated the welder of this knife marks his work “inside the liners”. I would rather it be marked somewhere more prominently. How many eBay sellers post pictures of (or even think to look at) the inside of the liners? Very few collectors look there either.

When the OP knife is eventually represented as being authentic, it ceases to be a historical reproduction. It becomes a counterfeit. JMO.

As Phil has said “none of us can be held accountable for the dishonorable acts of others”. Agreed, but such acts surely don’t help our hobby, nor do they bode well for the value of honest old knives.

Ken

I’m thinking anyone with the salt to buy that knife years on down the road will read the knife and pass on the purchase. I know I would, the look of the blade vs the look of the tang would raise enough of a red flag I would say “nice knife” and move on.

Personally I think the scale jigging and color alone indicate this is not an authentic Case knife and has been reworked. I do look inside the liners on Puma pocket knives to see what number is there in order to determine when it was made, but that is probably the only brand I would do this for.