All About Pocket Knives

I know next to nothing about knives. I purchased a storage unit and this knife was in it. Does anyone know what it is or if it has any value. I appreciate any help. I was unable to find identifying marks. Thanks.

I can't help with the identification of your knife MMM, but, there will be folks along who likely can, so stick around and we might make a dedicated knifer out of you yet! In any event, to AAPK!

Welcome to AAPK. I can’t help with identifying who made it, but as a general rule a knife with no identifying marks has no value as a collectable. If the maker wasn’t proud enough of it to stamp their name on it, it’s unlikely to be worth much.

As with anything else there may be exceptions. Someone here may be able to identify the maker from its characteristics.

Ken

Your knife appears to be a WW2 era EGW knife. They were made by a fellow named Waterman for sale to men in the military and are usually marked EGW just ahead of the guard. Yours looks well worn, perhaps the mark was worn off or just missed the stamping process. Nice condition ones sell for 30-50 bucks with original sheaths, they are not high end knives but there are WW2 knife enthusiasts who like them, I have a few myself. Some have leather washer handles like yours and some have wood handles. Waterman did continue making some for a few years after the war but mostly the smaller 5" blade versions. If you google "EGW knife" and got to "images" you will see lots of them. They are fairly common, Waterman must have made thousands of them.

Ken, while I agree most unmarked knives do not sell well there are many variations of unmarked WW2 "theater" knives that can go in the hundreds of dollars. I sold a beauty with ivory scales for $300 a couple years ago. There are lots of folks who collect and search for these theater knives and there is even a large book about them by Bill Wright. If you hunt the fleas it would be smart to learn about them because some are beautifully made and often bought for a song.

Thank you all for the info! I would have responded sooner but had trouble refinding the question and responses. Thank you again for sharing your knowledge.