Here are 4 counterfeits made by a prolific and talented counterfeiter

[knifeaholic]

I too saw mine on ebay, I have a few more, I buy up as many as possible so others don't buy them as legit. I would have to take a closer look but I think the kutmaster blade may be real. Not sure about the rest of the knife. I think its good to show people examples of good and bad knives. Its good for knife collecting. Knowledge is power. Don Crandall

I agree about the Kutmaster blade and I have always thought that these fake knives were connected to Kutmaster in some way. The overall look, quality and quantity of them tells me there is some factory connection.

The story (at one point widely circulated) is that in the 1980's a couple of well known antique knife dealers bought the factory collection from the Utica Cutlery factory - about 800 pristine early 1900's Utica made knives. There were many amazing (and quite real) knives in that collection.

As part of the same deal, these same dealers bought 5 tons of knife parts and (I think) the old tooling that had sat in the Utica factory for decades.

So for many years, the older parts were assembled into fantasy knives, many with early hardware company stamps, since Utica had been prolific in making contract knives.

Many knives were also made from the Utica and Kutmaster parts with fake cold stamps used on blades that were (evidently) originally unmarked.

As time went on the older parts marked KUTMASTER were used up, many "fantasy fakes" were made with the Kutmaster parts, including cattle knives with shoe company and Coca Cola shields, five blade stock knives, six blade cattle knives, etc. These would all be tang stamped Kutmaster. Parker sold a lot of these as real in his catalogs in the 1990's.

I also think that many of these fakes were made with parts that came from Queen, parts like blades, frames, etc. that were used for the "black box" Winchester knives.

[celluloidheros]

When I say I buy as many as possible, I mean I buy them for low prices when the person who have them knows they are counterfeit and isn't the person making them. I don't buy them from people like myrtlefaye. Id rather pay 20 bucks for a knife and keep it and review it rather than letting a new collector pay 200 for it.

[btrwtr]

I too saw mine on ebay, I have a few more, I buy up as many as possible so others don't buy them as legit. I would have to take a closer look but I think the kutmaster blade may be real. Not sure about the rest of the knife. I think its good to show people examples of good and bad knives. Its good for knife collecting. Knowledge is power. Don Crandall

I agree about the Kutmaster blade and I have always thought that these fake knives were connected to Kutmaster in some way. The overall look, quality and quantity of them tells me there is some factory connection.

The story (at one point widely circulated) is that in the 1980's a couple of well known antique knife dealers bought the factory collection from the Utica Cutlery factory - about 800 pristine early 1900's Utica made knives. There were many amazing (and quite real) knives in that collection.

As part of the same deal, these same dealers bought 5 tons of knife parts and (I think) the old tooling that had sat in the Utica factory for decades.

So for many years, the older parts were assembled into fantasy knives, many with early hardware company stamps, since Utica had been prolific in making contract knives.

Many knives were also made from the Utica and Kutmaster parts with fake cold stamps used on blades that were (evidently) originally unmarked.

As time went on the older parts marked KUTMASTER were used up, many "fantasy fakes" were made with the Kutmaster parts, including cattle knives with shoe company and Coca Cola shields, five blade stock knives, six blade cattle knives, etc. These would all be tang stamped Kutmaster. Parker sold a lot of these as real in his catalogs in the 1990's.

I also think that many of these fakes were made with parts that came from Queen, parts like blades, frames, etc. that were used for the "black box" Winchester knives.

That all makes sense Steve. Utica - Kutmaster and Queen - Blue Grass - Winchester. Patterns and bone jigging all line up. We don't see as many of these on the market now as we did in the 90's but I am sure many are still thought to be old original knives and are hiding in collections everywhere. Using up the parts to make good knives makes sense but trying to pass them off as something they aren't is a shame and it happened a lot and still happens.

The Utica knives from the factory collection were some of the very best with fully polished and beautifully ecthed blades.

[bighomer]

Great reading Steve, thanks.