And another one!

[Mumbleypeg]

Why is it so many of these fake Case Tested stag whittlers are offered by sellers from Tennessee? Here's another one. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Case-T ... SwC1FbowSi This one is said by the seller to be a Tested XX knife but has Sambar stag which was never used in the Tested era, and a 1970s open C short S shield. Ridiculous obvious fake.

Ken

[RalphAlsip]

Ridiculous obvious fake.

Ken, I agree In addition to the things you mentioned, the stamp is way off, too.

[Mumbleypeg]

Ridiculous obvious fake.

Ken, I agree In addition to the things you mentioned, the stamp is way off, too.

Jerry, thanks. I never got that far!

Ken

[Gunsil]

TN is simply the knife fakery capital of the world. Parker really got it going well and it has never stopped there and has spread out some.

[XX Case XX]

TN is simply the knife fakery capital of the world.

This must be accurate as another knowledgeable collector told me the very same thing. I guess TN is the epicenter.

_________
Mike

[Knife Nut]

It's amazing to me that so many of these sellers of fake knives maintain a 100% Ebay rating !

Paul

[Mumbleypeg]

Many of them don't know they're selling fakes, and unfortunately the buyers don't know either. I was once that ignorant and gullible myself.

I sent a message to the seller advising the knife is fake, why it is fake, and advising that the knife should be destroyed. Got a response thanking me, and saying the auction has been taken down. When I looked a few minutes ago it was gone. Says the item is being relished but the relisted auction is pending.

It will be interesting to see where this goes next - I'm betting the seller has some $$ invested in this fake and will try to at least recover that, regardless that it's a fake. Most of these sellers aren't collectors and couldn't care less whether they're keeping a fake in circulation. They don't know what they're selling, just trying to make a buck.

Ken

[Quick Steel]

This seller didn't make the 100% cut. His rating is 96.4% which is miserable in my view.

[Mumbleypeg]

This seller didn't make the 100% cut. His rating is 96.4% which is miserable in my view.

Interesting. On mine it says this seller has a 100% rating.

Vintage Case Tested XX 5308 Whittler Nr-mint BV-$1000
Seller : fftr101 (279 ) 100% Positive feedback

Ken

[Quick Steel]

I'm getting seller 123oweno.

[Mumbleypeg]

I'm getting seller 123oweno.

Take another look. You're seeing ebay's "This Auction has ended but we found something similar" marketing scheme. They're offering that up as an alternative to what you wanted to see, since they can't get any of your money for the original sale item. Go to the top and click on "see original listing". That should take you to it.

Ken

[srm65]

Being from Tennessee and having collected Case knives for many years, I have only had one counterfiet (to may knowledge). I have had a couples ones from other makes. I suppose there are many individuals in all states that are crooked enough to sell fakes to make money. With this particular knife mentioned, I noticed the seller does not accept returns, RED FLAG - don't deal with them. Nuff said.

[bestgear]

Many of them don't know they're selling fakes, and unfortunately the buyers don't know either. I was once that ignorant and gullible myself.

I sent a message to the seller advising the knife is fake, why it is fake, and advising that the knife should be destroyed. Got a response thanking me, and saying the auction has been taken down. When I looked a few minutes ago it was gone. Says the item is being relished but the relisted auction is pending.

It will be interesting to see where this goes next - I'm betting the seller has some $$ invested in this fake and will try to at least recover that, regardless that it's a fake. Most of these sellers aren't collectors and couldn't care less whether they're keeping a fake in circulation. They don't know what they're selling, just trying to make a buck.

Ken

The stark reality of it is that counterfeit knives have existed for a long time and aren't going away anytime soon. Even the big auction houses like Skinner, Rock Island and Barneby's who have paid "subject matter experts" on staff sometimes unknowingly auction off and sell a counterfeit knife. In my circle of knife friends, we recently saw a push dagger that sold at an auction house for thousands of dollars that had counterfeit written all over it but it was vetted, catalogued, displayed and sold.

The good news is that we have the counterfeit police here on AAPK working day-and-night to bring these forgeries to our attention and even alert the seller as Ken did . I know I'm in the majority when I stand-up and say "Hi, my name is Tom, and I'm the sad owner of a counterfeit knife".

[Mumbleypeg]

It's back - relisted as a "knockoff". Already has three bids. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Case-Tested-XX ... SwC1FbowSi

Ken

[kootenay joe]

How do these Tennessee sellers get the fake Case knives ? And because these sellers are often in TN. does not mean that the fakes are made in TN. (even though they likely are, other options cannot be ruled out)
Do fakers contact the ebay sellers with "Psst, wanna buy a vintage knife for real cheap" ? Or ??
kj

[TwoFlowersLuggage]

Are the blades from a genuine Tested knife? If they are, then maybe we need a new category for these: "restomod" knives - analogous to a restomod car. So, we could then have untouched, restored & restomod knives. My thinking is that they are never going away, so perhaps we should just give them a viable place to live. The focus would then shift to the quality of the restoration & modifications instead of the attempt to counterfeit & defraud.

I could envision ads like: "Nice Case Tested restomod. Frame-up restoration using Sambar stag handles. Shield is not period-correct, but still looks great. Excellent fit & finish."

[Mumbleypeg]

I have no idea where these fakes were made, but it seems to me Tennessee and Kentucky have the lion's share of the sellers offering them. If that assumption is correct, logic would say that would be the area of origin also. I know the first one of these "sambar stag 1970s shield" fakes I recall seeing was the one I naively bought in the early 1970s, from a Tennessee seller. I suspect him to be the source of many of them but have no evidence to prove that assertion. And to be fair, those states also have many honest sellers, so in no way do I want to cast dispersions on them.

However a few years later I showed the knife to Tony Foster and Jim Sargent at a show, and they informed me it was a fake. When I told them who sold it to me they said nothing, but exchanged a knowing look between them.

TFL, the answer to your question is, no these are not authentic Tested blades. If the blades were that pristine why would one need to re-handle it? The rest of the knife would likely be just as nice. Some of these fakes are Case knives of more recent manufacture, with the master blade tang "shaved" down and re-stamped. So whoever did it has taken an otherwise good $150 knife, modified it by grinding the original (likely a 1970s dotted) tang stamp off, and re-stamped it to represent it as a $800 knife. (Back in the 70s when I bought one it was a $20 knife made into a $100 fake.). Not a bad return for a small amount of work by a dishonest knife mechanic.

Some other fakes you see are Kutmasters, Schrades and others, also re-stamped, often as "Case Tested" or other higher priced old brands. There are plenty of ill-informed naive collectors who simply read the stamp and assume the knife to be authentic. If you're gonna spend hundreds of dollars on a knife, at least spend a fraction of that on a couple of good reference books and educate yourself before hand!

(Sorry to be so long-winded. Counterfeits are a topic about which I am passionate.)

Ken

[TwoFlowersLuggage]

Well, there goes my "restomod knife" idea down the toilet hole. Oh well, I tried... Anyone willing to create a tang stamp is simply a criminal - there's no other way to say it!

[RalphAlsip]

create a tang stamp

This comparison picture highlights the crudeness of the artisan's (lol) work. The comparison is not from the same style of knife and/or blade so the only comparison is for the lettering used. There are 2 versions of the original post stamp. The leftmost one has yellow highlights around areas of concern. The middle image is unaltered. The rightmost image is of a legitimate stamp.

[Mumbleypeg]

Thanks for posting that Jerry. Great example of a "shaved" tang - note how the line above the stamp (the shoulder, where the blade meets the tang), is rounded and curves upward on the right side - this is an indication the tang has likely been ground ("shaved") down. The stamp itself is not crisp and clean, the corners are blurry and rounded. Your pictures clearly compare the shoulders and stamping lines of the two knives.

However there are many other "tells" on most knives, before you ever get a look at the tang stamp. Handle cover materials, jigging and coloring, blade shapes, frames, shields, and so on. Some of this can be learned from good reference books, but some of it has to be learned from the experience of looking at hundreds of honest old knives - there's no substitute for that. If you're gonna collect older knives of any specific brand, especially if they sell for much money, take time to study the patterns, materials, everything about that brand. Case may be the most commonly counterfeited brand, but Remington, Ka-bar, Winchester, and many others are counterfeited also.

Whether knives or other items, if it's collected and brings at least a modestly high price, you can bet the fakers are at work cheating honest folks out of their money.

Ken

[kootenay joe]

The first 30+ years of my knife collecting i only bought the less expensive vintage knives. This means ones with a cracked handle, short blade, absent snap on one of the blades, etc. To me they were still fine knives and you can be fairly sure they have never been re-worked so they re all original.
I have learned a fair bit from these knives including what an original of a certain knife should look like. Kind of like having a small reference 'library' with knives in place of books.
kj