Kutmaster tickler with fake Tested stamp and NOTE TO SELLERS!
Posted: Mon May 16, 2022 9:47 pm
https://picclick.com/CASE-TESTED-Circle ... id=1&pid=1
This one is getting bids already. It's a shame. I imagine folks new to the collecting game see a Case Tested stamp and immediately equate it to a high value, highly collectible find. But you have to do a little homework, gain a little knowledge. Nothing worthwhile in life comes easy. Take it from a collector that has fallen for even crappier, more obvious fakes than this one early on--one of them sold to me from a seller who was a member of this forum! I highly recommend new collectors sign on to Worthpoint. Pay a one month fee of $37.00. take several hours pouring through "Vintage Folding Knives," take scren shots of different tang stamps, pocket knives you'd like to collect or ones you are thinking about purchasing on Ebay currently. Learn about the history of the thing you collect. Collecting isn't a passive activity. Laziness and passivity lead to being ripped off and encourages fraudsters.
All you have to have to know this one is a fake, for instance, is a clean shot of a real Tested XX tang stamp. Beyond that, find a bunch of pictures of case teste bone handled toothpick/ticklers, see if they match up with this one--THEY WON'T! This is a Kutmaster with a crappy rehandle done on it. The ricosso stamp is laughably inept. It screams FAKE! Look at 500 pictures of a real 61093 from the Tested XX era and you'll never be fooled again.
And if you are a seller on this site, make sure you are selling what you claim to be selling. We are suppossed to be an online community. A community consists of neighbors and neighbors are suppossed to have eachothers backs. Take pride in you business and don't be pawning off questionable pocket knives with the plan to claim ignorance if someone calls you out or just because you have a return policy. Do some research--But be discerning! Goins isn't the New Testament. The Goins did a huge service for the knife collecting community with their painstaking research. But they did it just before the internet changed the world. If they had a Standard Knife Company pocket knife at hand that they knew to be made by Union Cutlery/Kabar they might suggest that Standard Knife Co. contracted from Union Cutlery/Kabar. But that DOES NOT MEAN every Standard Knife Company pocket knife for the entire existence of Standard Knife Company was made by Union Cut Co./Kabar! don't make the 11th commandment out of it. I own several Standard Knife Company Toothpicks and every one of them are made by Imperial. How am I so sure? Because I own at least twenty imperial ticklers from every period Imperial made them and I've looked at hundreds of pictures of Imperial Toothpicks on Worthpoint over the past several years. If the Goins had made their book in the past ten years, it would be improved 100% simply because they could have gone on Worthpoint and have tens of thousands of knives to cross check their info with. Here's a short list of other must have books for knfe collectors that weren't delivered to Moses from on high either: Sargent's, The Knife Makers that went west, Levine, and Pfeiffer. Authors make mistakes. They can't put out a new edition every time they realize they made one. Do your own homework.
I am one of those sometimes boring pattern collectors who is always trying to bring his or her pattern into the conversation. But putting 100 percent of your focus on one pattern has its advantages. Most companies produced the toothpick in the golden era. So I've learned about those companies, and I know a lot about who contracted to who I have identified over 20 companies who made toothpicks and own at least one of them. So I can spot that company's knife no matter who's contract stamp is on it from a mile away. Yet there are sellers on this sight, who when I politely tell them they are claiming a Utica to be a Union; or a Hammer made by Imperial to be a Hammer Brand made by New York Knife Company they put the truth in as a footnote or quietly take the knife off AAPK and peddle it over on Ebay without skipping a beat. That said, all due respect to the many more who thank me and quietly do the right thing. Is this about my ego? maybe, I'm human too. But pushing fakes is a huge negative for the community--especially to the new collector who discovers they've been ripped off. I vowed sometime back to do something about it. It's my small way of of watching out for my neighbors in the community. What's yours?
This one is getting bids already. It's a shame. I imagine folks new to the collecting game see a Case Tested stamp and immediately equate it to a high value, highly collectible find. But you have to do a little homework, gain a little knowledge. Nothing worthwhile in life comes easy. Take it from a collector that has fallen for even crappier, more obvious fakes than this one early on--one of them sold to me from a seller who was a member of this forum! I highly recommend new collectors sign on to Worthpoint. Pay a one month fee of $37.00. take several hours pouring through "Vintage Folding Knives," take scren shots of different tang stamps, pocket knives you'd like to collect or ones you are thinking about purchasing on Ebay currently. Learn about the history of the thing you collect. Collecting isn't a passive activity. Laziness and passivity lead to being ripped off and encourages fraudsters.
All you have to have to know this one is a fake, for instance, is a clean shot of a real Tested XX tang stamp. Beyond that, find a bunch of pictures of case teste bone handled toothpick/ticklers, see if they match up with this one--THEY WON'T! This is a Kutmaster with a crappy rehandle done on it. The ricosso stamp is laughably inept. It screams FAKE! Look at 500 pictures of a real 61093 from the Tested XX era and you'll never be fooled again.
And if you are a seller on this site, make sure you are selling what you claim to be selling. We are suppossed to be an online community. A community consists of neighbors and neighbors are suppossed to have eachothers backs. Take pride in you business and don't be pawning off questionable pocket knives with the plan to claim ignorance if someone calls you out or just because you have a return policy. Do some research--But be discerning! Goins isn't the New Testament. The Goins did a huge service for the knife collecting community with their painstaking research. But they did it just before the internet changed the world. If they had a Standard Knife Company pocket knife at hand that they knew to be made by Union Cutlery/Kabar they might suggest that Standard Knife Co. contracted from Union Cutlery/Kabar. But that DOES NOT MEAN every Standard Knife Company pocket knife for the entire existence of Standard Knife Company was made by Union Cut Co./Kabar! don't make the 11th commandment out of it. I own several Standard Knife Company Toothpicks and every one of them are made by Imperial. How am I so sure? Because I own at least twenty imperial ticklers from every period Imperial made them and I've looked at hundreds of pictures of Imperial Toothpicks on Worthpoint over the past several years. If the Goins had made their book in the past ten years, it would be improved 100% simply because they could have gone on Worthpoint and have tens of thousands of knives to cross check their info with. Here's a short list of other must have books for knfe collectors that weren't delivered to Moses from on high either: Sargent's, The Knife Makers that went west, Levine, and Pfeiffer. Authors make mistakes. They can't put out a new edition every time they realize they made one. Do your own homework.
I am one of those sometimes boring pattern collectors who is always trying to bring his or her pattern into the conversation. But putting 100 percent of your focus on one pattern has its advantages. Most companies produced the toothpick in the golden era. So I've learned about those companies, and I know a lot about who contracted to who I have identified over 20 companies who made toothpicks and own at least one of them. So I can spot that company's knife no matter who's contract stamp is on it from a mile away. Yet there are sellers on this sight, who when I politely tell them they are claiming a Utica to be a Union; or a Hammer made by Imperial to be a Hammer Brand made by New York Knife Company they put the truth in as a footnote or quietly take the knife off AAPK and peddle it over on Ebay without skipping a beat. That said, all due respect to the many more who thank me and quietly do the right thing. Is this about my ego? maybe, I'm human too. But pushing fakes is a huge negative for the community--especially to the new collector who discovers they've been ripped off. I vowed sometime back to do something about it. It's my small way of of watching out for my neighbors in the community. What's yours?
Your very detailed post covers all the aspects of being an honest seller, and I for one appreciate it. Case knives aren't in my wheelhouse as knives I'd collect so I know very little about them, but even my untrained eye can see there's something wrong with that stamp! It's really quite a shame cuz the knife overall looks teriffic! Great information, thank you! 