Messages from the Blademaster

The Bechtler Mint Knife Club started in 1983 and made annual club  knives until 2007.   Most have:  stag handles, elaborate blade work, serial numbers, scrolled bolsters and a replica $5 gold piece second shields.  The Bechtler mint started minting gold coins in 1831, 17 years before the US government made any.  The club was in […]

I like Case collector club knives.   They have the necessary collector ingredients to help future values. They are rare, almost always fewer than 200 knives, sometimes as few as 25. They are frequently heavily embellished. Each new feature adds to original cost.  And original cost frequently matches future cost.  High today often translates into higher […]

The set picture shows the two knife 1984 Call of the Wild set with gold wash blades. Notice that one of the knives has a straight ground tang, and the other has a new grind. At this time I have documented 6 different variations that occur in the set. If you go to KnifeDB.com you […]

One of the great things about collecting Case knives is the richness and diversity of the collecting possibilities.  Take for example, the Tennessee Valley Authority 50th Anniversary knife. I found my first one  with a 1983 tang stamp date.  That was also the year of the TVA 50th Anniversary.  It had the new grind blades […]

Here is a very early series of  6 collector knives.  It was made for the Alabama Gun Collectors Association 25th thru 30th Anniversary.  Six trappers make up the series, each with a different handle.   The knifes were made from 1979 to 1984 in very low quantities for the time.  For example,  the Kentucky Bicentennial knives […]

Here’s a new feature on KnifeDB.com. As you know, the prices shown on KnifeDB.com are actual selling prices giving you the most accurate price information possible. Twice a year the prices are adjusted for inflation to make the prices comparable over time. The new feature takes the high and low inflation adjusted prices and lists […]

Here’s an interesting factory error. In 2012, the Case factory made a 7 knife mint set with red peach seed jigged bone and slanted bolsters. These were sold in an unusually shaped wood and glass frame. The second picture shows a closeup of how the knives looked. BUT, notice the picture of the bottom of […]

Remember that the goal of KnifeDB.com is to show collectors the price levels at which knives traded hands:  in other words the actual buy/sell price. Twice a year, KnifeDB.com takes its almost 43,000 actual knife prices and adjusts them for inflation. Then we list them all for collectors to use.  As you know we are […]

KnifeDB.Com Status August 2023 * 21,693  24,341 Case Pocket Knives Documented * 18,683  21,672 Individual Knife Pictures *  37,464  42,281 Actual Knife selling prices *  Prices adjusted for inflation 2X a year * 481 522 Users tracking their Knife collections *  (New)  273  COA’s linked to Knives  Join Today-$29.95/Yr More info – Same money

We just added custom work number 6000 a week or so ago.  We consider custom work to be anything added to a Case knife that is not usually there, like a serial number, or something on the blade or handle, etc. So what, you say?  Well custom work is important to the specialty knife collector.  […]