The News from ElephantToenails.com

At the NKCA Show in Dalton, Georgia, I found two jumbo swellcenters for sale for $5000 each. One was a WR Case (Platts production). Nice full blades and great handles. The other was a later W R Case swellcenter with the more “modern” style master blade. It appeared to have a variation of Rogers bone and bowtie shield. It also had the matchstriker in the nail nic. Both of these are up in The List for your review (not the ones I found at the show but the two I have). I would say both were EX + to NM.

This morning, I made one more quick walk through just to see if there was anything I missed and to say goodbye to my old and new friends. I took a stab at getting the swellcenters, but to no avail. Even though I had both of them, I am always willing to have some more .

As I was trying to come to terms on them the dealer asked me an interesting question and one to which I hadn’t really ever thought about before. He was trying to convince me I needed to snatch them up because he felt there aren’t many “out there,” so he asked “So just how many jumbo swellcenters do you think there are out there today?” Now that was an interesting question. He expected me to say something like “…oh, you are right, there aren’t very many.” But you know, after I thought about it I said “dozens.” He was taken back by my response, but the truth is I believe there are dozens out there in collections today.

Heck, I know quite a few folks with one or more. I also know of at least three single bladed Platts floating around. Then factor in the folks who are closet collectors (folks who don’t want anyone to know what they have) and the folks who don’t really know what they have. All you have to do is read the Toenail Q & A to see what I mean. I know of at least two folks who have emailed me asking about Jumbos they either found and didn’t know much about them or inherited.

Anyway, I was pleased to say that I believe there are dozens that have been identified and are being preserved in collections out there.

At the Dalton show I found would have been a first for me but after I scoped it out, determined it was a fake.

It was reported to be called a Case Brothers “swayback” toenail. As I walked up on it, it immediately caught my eye (sorry for the blurry photo…I got this one shot and then my battery died).

It was greenbone Case Brothers that appeared a bit thinner than usual. It was a really cool knife and there for a minute I thought it might be a new toenail “style.” In case you are curious he was asking $2200 for it.

I couldn’t help but get my glass out to look closer and upon a more thorough inspection found the bolster pins had been dug out. No longer where the pins nice and round and there was an unusual “rust” on top of each one- both sides and both ends. Really, that was about all I found that I didn’t like, but put it back fairly quickly after discovering the pin problem and therefore didn’t continue to inspect it. The handles followed the contour of the liners nicely. I did notice there were some “bumps” where the bolsters came to meet the handles in a couple of areas, but probably wouldn’t have been too bothered by that had the pin problems not jumped out at me. The blades and stamping were original…..just don’t know where the counterfeiter came up with the handles and frame.

I walked away from the table disappointed. I thought I had found a real jewel because not all “one of a kind” knives/toenails are fake.

It was snowing when I left The Northwest Ga Convention Center earlier today, but the blustery day only added to making this a memorable trip for me. For you newer collectors who have yet to attend a knife show, you must make every effort to get to one.

Attending a knife show, for me, is about 1) scoping out the toenails for sale, 2) seeing the prices being asked for those toenails, 3) meeting knife folks, 4) visiting with the knife folks I know, 5) finding out the latest talk on the goings on in the Knifedom, And 6) having the opportunity to handle a lot of toenails and testing my learning on identifying the good ones from bad ones.This show was all of that and more! (more…)