All About Pocket Knives

My first post!

Being a knife collecting noob, but one who has carried and used pocket knives every day since elementary school (where we regularly played "chicken" on the playground, throwing our knives at one another's feet), I'm curious about the do's and don'ts of maintaining a knife's value.

For the knives that I don't use, are they more desireable to the collecting community after being cleaned, polished, and sharpened? Refinishing is often a no-no with antiques; is it the same with knives?

If I replace a broken blade with a correctly matching blade, without doing additional damage in the process, have I changed the value one way or the other?

General pointers would be most helpful.

JGinVB wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 12:13 pm My first post!

Being a knife collecting noob, but one who has carried and used pocket knives every day since elementary school (where we regularly played "chicken" on the playground, throwing our knives at one another's feet), I'm curious about the do's and don'ts of maintaining a knife's value.

For the knives that I don't use, are they more desireable to the collecting community after being cleaned, polished, and sharpened? Refinishing is often a no-no with antiques; is it the same with knives?

If I replace a broken blade with a correctly matching blade, without doing additional damage in the process, have I changed the value one way or the other?

General pointers would be most helpful.

Hello JGinVB and Welcome to AAPK. Stick around, carouse through the threads and enjoy yourself. Lots of great people here with a lot of experience.

As for your question, Collecting anything a lot of times is a personal preference. How you want to collect, what, and how to maintain them concern many factors. If you are going to collect items that you are looking at keeping over a period of time as kind of an investment and look to possibly gain a return on, then yes, you might want to collect items to leave in the box and keep well maintained. But again, it also depends on if you are looking at collecting some already older collectibles, and although some sellers will tell you.."Shiny Sells" there are collectors who would rather have the item in it's natural state, not overly buffed, but not rusty either. It's kind of like collecting old coins, Condition, Age, Quantity produced, and again Condition...Condition... Condition. But the biggest thing is to have fun collecting.

If it is a used knife in good shape, yes.. I exercise mine, keep it oiled, and do mild cleaning to maintain it. If it is one that has already gained some rust specks, has some wear, but is desirable to you, your not going to damage the value that much cleaning it. It also depends on a little research. Hypothetically, if you bought a knife, that is an older knife and when it was new, it didn't come with a mirror polished blade, and you clean this knife and polish the blades with a buffer to a mirror finish, it's going to look incorrect to a seasoned collector. Also if the blade has some pitting, and spots, if you polish to a mirror finish, your going to have shiny pitting, unless you can professionally regrind the blades, but then your going to loose some of the original size, thickness and profile of a blade. But you will learn as you go.

If your collecting new, buy an extra to put up if it's one that may be limited, and the other to play with or carry. But have fun with it.

As far as maintenance and cleaning, there are some good threads here on AAPK you could check out on the tutorials thread.
viewforum.php?f=38
viewforum.php?f=37

Hope this helps some what. But the way you collect is mainly up to you. Again welcome, Enjoy the site, search through all the threads and sections to get used to it, and don't be afraid to ask questions. Also, we don't mind if you show off your knives also.

Have a good one

First, welcome aboard!

I'm an accumulator, not a collector, the difference being, in my opinion, every one of my knives have been carried, used, and sharpened by me.
That said, for me, a knife's value is in it's looks and functionality. I don't purchase knives as an investment.
I don't abuse my knives; I believe in the right tool for the job, so I'm not going to use it as a prybar or try to cut a steel cable. I treat all my tools with respect. That's going to maintain the value the knife has for me.

Smitty gave some good advice.
I just gave my 2 cents.

Steve Warden wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 12:46 pm First, welcome aboard!

I'm an accumulator, not a collector, the difference being, in my opinion, every one of my knives have been carried, used, and sharpened by me.
That said, for me, a knife's value is in it's looks and functionality. I don't purchase knives as an investment.
I don't abuse my knives; I believe in the right tool for the job, so I'm not going to use it as a prybar or try to cut a steel cable. I treat all my tools with respect. That's going to maintain the value the knife has for me.

Smitty gave some good advice.
I just gave my 2 cents.

I'm the same Steve. I've got some put up to pass down, but the rest I buy for me to enjoy. Mainly because I'm gonna Chicken Eye, Coon Finger, and get some pocket time with all those I really like. I like the 2 cents quote. I've always said I put in my 2 cents that ain't worth a nickle.

Really hard to "maintain" any collectible's value, knives included. The whole collectibles market took a big hit with the last recession, many knives too. The main problem is that some brands and patterns of knives go up and down in popularity over time. A few years ago Remington fixed blades had a big following and values went up. Now their popularity is waning and most prices are too. Same holds true for many pocket knife patterns. It is really impossible to predict which brands and/or patterns will go up, go down, or will hold their value. Most knives made for the collector's market don't hold or increase in value for a long time since all owners just hold them new in boxes and there are myriads of collectors doing the same. Yes, they will increase or at least hold value as long as the brand and pattern remain popular but if that popularity dips so does the value. I have knives I spent a grand on that I cannot get a returned profit on and will take a loss on but others that have increased in value all due to popularity, it's a crap shoot for sure.

Welcome to AAPK. Lots of good advice given. One thing to add. If you are trying to maintain value, then don’t sharpen the knives. Sharpening really devalues a knife. I pass right over knives to buy when I see any sign of sharpening. Some people can professionally sharpen a knife and not leave telltale marks of sharpening and that helps. But one reason people buy a knife is for the blade, anything that reduces the amount of blade left is bound to reduce the value of the knife.
Basic cleaning and oiling is a great idea. Simichrome the oxidation off the metal, put mineral oil on bone or wooden handles, wipe it off, then seal the blades and handles with Ren Wax, oil the joints and put back on display. That’s what I do with my collection.
Good luck collecting.

Mark just gave you some very good advice as did everyone else. I hope I'm not breaking any rules or being to forward, but this is something I mentioned in my new book, Folding Knives, Starting Your Collection.
Welcome to AAPK.

Welcome to AAPK. Glad to have you aboard.

I don't buy knives to hold on to and try to resell at a profit. I buy knives to hold on to until they pry them out of my cold dead hands. My kids and grand-kids will have the job of getting rid of them after I've breathed my last at which time it will make no never mind if they've held their value or not. Don't worry. Be happy.

Sharpnshinyknives wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 5:02 pm Welcome to AAPK. Lots of good advice given. One thing to add. If you are trying to maintain value, then don’t sharpen the knives. Sharpening really devalues a knife. I pass right over knives to buy when I see any sign of sharpening. Some people can professionally sharpen a knife and not leave telltale marks of sharpening and that helps. But one reason people buy a knife is for the blade, anything that reduces the amount of blade left is bound to reduce the value of the knife.
Basic cleaning and oiling is a great idea. Simichrome the oxidation off the metal, put mineral oil on bone or wooden handles, wipe it off, then seal the blades and handles with Ren Wax, oil the joints and put back on display. That’s what I do with my collection.
Good luck collecting.

You just told me something new. I had never heard of using "Ren Wax" on knives before so I just ordered some to give it a try. Thanks

You’re welcome David. I saw people mentioning this product for over a year before I finally got some and now I don’t know what I would do without it. I’ve used half a can of it in a year. It’s amazing stuff.

Sharpnshinyknives wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 7:19 pm You’re welcome David. I saw people mentioning this product for over a year before I finally got some and now I don’t know what I would do without it. I’ve used half a can of it in a year. It’s amazing stuff.

With Renwax, do you use it on knives that you use or only on knives that you collect. Will it darken wood scales? And if you do use it on users, how often do you use it for maintenance.

cudgee wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 9:37 pm

Sharpnshinyknives wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 7:19 pm You’re welcome David. I saw people mentioning this product for over a year before I finally got some and now I don’t know what I would do without it. I’ve used half a can of it in a year. It’s amazing stuff.

With Renwax, do you use it on knives that you use or only on knives that you collect. Will it darken wood scales? And if you do use it on users, how often do you use it for maintenance.

With RenWax, I've always heard that a little goes a long way. It was primarily used for museum-grade items, so I don't think it's designed to alter wood/metal in any way like darkening it.

cudgee wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 9:37 pm

Sharpnshinyknives wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 7:19 pm You’re welcome David. I saw people mentioning this product for over a year before I finally got some and now I don’t know what I would do without it. I’ve used half a can of it in a year. It’s amazing stuff.

With Renwax, do you use it on knives that you use or only on knives that you collect. Will it darken wood scales? And if you do use it on users, how often do you use it for maintenance.

It will not darken wood scales. It will make them shinier in a good way. I wouldn’t use it on knives that I use except to give them a spa treatment just to clean up all the old gunk and dust. I especially wouldn’t use it on knives that you frequently cut food with, like apples and such. You can smell the petroleum in it so I wouldn’t consider it safe to eat.
I use it on all my collectibles and just about every knife I put in my store. I follow the same procedure for knives I sell as those I collect. The exceptions would be GEC knives. They come so heavily oiled from the factory that I don’t like wiping all that off just for storage. It is a great product and I am really glad I have it.
For maintenance I would only reapply it down the road if you get a knife out and find that it has oxidation on it. Then repeat the whole process I mentioned earlier. Once it goes on you shouldn’t have to reapply it to a knife in a box or on display. Hope this helps.

"If your collecting new, buy an extra to put up if it's one that may be limited, and the other to play with or carry. But have fun with it."


My buddy always buys three of any knife if he can; One to carry and use and not worry about the condition, one to keep mint in the box and be a safe queen and one to keep mint in the box to trade or sell at some time in the future.

Oh, and of course, welcome to AAPK.

Welcome! Glad to have you here at AAPK!

There are a lot of answers here that depends upon a lot of conditions:
A rare knife that is a desirable pattern should be thought of like a museum piece. Such knives might be worth thousands in the right condition, so you want to do as little as possible to them.
Similarly, those for serious collectors will need to be as close as possible to mint New-In-Box condition.
Knives for casual collectors - these can be all over the road. Some people want an old knife to look old, some want it cleaned @ polished to a mirror finish, and some look for anything in between. Shiny DOES sell to the average buyer, but a collector is usually more discriminating. It is all according to what the buyer wants.
Repairing a knife does lower the value compared to one in mint condition, but will still usually increase the value as compared to a broken knife. The ethical knife mechanic will mark the knife (I put the date & my initials on the pile-side liner) so that a buyer, and subsequent buyers, can know that the knife has been repaired.
Though so far I give away or carry most of the knives that I repair, because mine are cheap knives anyway.

Where does one can purchase Renwax??

LDF Knives wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 3:28 pm Where does one can purchase Renwax??

https://www.amazon.com/Renaissance-XTL- ... ooghydr-20

I rub the stag on my chest to keep it moist