New guy with a question,

[Ky wonder]

First I would like to thank the moderators for letting me join.

While I am not a knife collector, as much as I am a gun collector, yesterday I bought a marlin 39a peanut, from a older gentleman, he had a container of knives that he was selling, and the above two knives were all that caught my eye.

While I do own some old winchester and remington knives, that I have picked up over the years,

The two cases are from 76,77, I know that much.

My question. Is about the back straps, and the extra MM marks, does anyone know anything about these?

I bought the pair for $120, dont even care if I overpaid,
I had just never seen this work on a pocket knife before


Thanks in advance!

[Mumbleypeg]

Welcome to AAPK. What you’re calling back straps are actually the back springs. The ones on your knife have been file worked. The MM stamp is the initials of the person who did the file work. This would have been done after the knife left the factory.

Nice knives!

Ken

[FRJ]

Could that be early Muskrat Man work?

[Ky wonder]

Who's musrat man?

[FRJ]

He is a member of the knife forum and a skilled knife mechanic.

My mentioning his name in association with your knives is merely a guess.

Can you show pictures of the knives?

[Mumbleypeg]

Who's musrat man?

That’s the forum name of a member here who does outstanding work on knives. He repairs, restores, and embellishes them.
He might see this and confirm it is or is not his work. Or you could look him up in the members directory (click down there at the bottom where it says “Members”) and send him a PM.

Ken

[Ky wonder]

He is a member of the knife forum and a skilled knife mechanic.

My mentioning his name in association with your knives is merely a guess.

Can you show pictures of the knives?

Added more to original post

[doglegg]

Certainly desirable knives.

[herbva]

Who's musrat man?

Welcome to AAPK! Here's a link to one of Kaleb's (aka Muskrat Man) videos. I think he got me hooked on knife repair and restoration. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X44CxU2wtOk

[Ky wonder]

I PM' the MM member. But his profile showed 29yo, the 85 year old man I bought these from said that he bought them many years ago, in Lakeland fl. At a large case knife dealer, with this work already on them,

I know one is a 3 dot 77, the other a 4 dot 76

But thanks for all the responses so far

[Mumbleypeg]

Both knives appear to have a leading number “6” in the pattern number, which indicates they originally left the factory with bone, or more likely Delrin handle covers. Whoever did the work replaced those covers with stag.

Ken