The News from ElephantToenails.com

There seems to be an attitude among some out in the collecting world that is sucking the fun out of our hobby. As harsh a statement as that is, it’s true. Another truth is maybe this attitude has been ’round since the beginning, don’t know. But I do know knife collecting is supposed to be fun.

What attitude am I talking about? It’s the attitude held by some collectors, oftentimes unconsciously, that a knife is bad until they decide it’s not.

Well, I don’t want to get burned

No, we don’t want to buy fakes. No, we don’t want to waste our hard-earned money. No, we don’t like being lied to by a dishonest seller. But have things gotten so bad we have to approach every old knife this way?

Just dial into the forums, not to pick on forums here cause it’s not really the place. Go anywhere old knives are talked about and you will smell this attitude reeking from the place. Yeah, I know we don’t have to go where that talk is, but my point is broader than that- what has happened to our hobby to cause so many folks to approach a knife as though it isn’t the real deal?

I can hear them now. Yes, I know we need to examine the knives. We need to do our due diligence, but my gracious.

Even the experts don’t agree

Without getting into credentials of collectors to make these judgements, let’s just say- Do you know how many times I have been involved with “experts” who have been in knives for 30 plus years and have handled thousands of knives and yet, they can’t even agree among themselves on whether a knife is right or not? Does that mean we just accept every knife as genuine? No, but there are many times the experts can’t even tell and yet, somehow we can be so certain.

But really I’m not talking about knives here; instead I am talking about attitudes. Predispositions.

What’s interesting to me is how easily and quickly it is for some folks to label a knife a fake. Personally, it seems there are too many arm chair experts out there who can unquantifiably make these determinations. Most of the time we only have pictures to look at. We even go as far as to say, and I’ve been guilty of this too, that if the pictures are poor or fuzzy the seller did that on purpose- to hide the knife’s defects.

So, what’s the big deal?

The problem with this rush to judgement is huge. Aside from branding a particular knife as a fake, and killing its salability, we’ve called the seller a fraud. Plus, we hurt antique knife collecting by unnecessarily scaring off new collectors and sucking the fun out of collecting old knives for others.

Just calling a spade a spade

Should we not call a spade a spade? Yes, we should. Should we not talk to our fellow collectors about the knife? That’s not my point. What I’m saying is there seems to be a common approach to old knives out there that saps the fun out of our hobby. That’s my point. It’s the attitude that a knife is bad, until it is later determined not to be. That’s my point.

Bottom line-

We are going to run into fakes out there, sure, but let’s not assume every knife we look at is and especially not just because it has something  uncharacteristic. And sometimes the seller is a crook, but something my Dad told me years ago- “Son, you are going to get screwed in life, but don’t assume everyone is out to screw you, cause if you do your life will be miserable.”

I know many of the members of the Elephant Toenail Collector Club are also members of the iKnifeCollector collector community, so I felt it was only appropriate to address my recent post there entitled: Rites of Passage- Memoirs of a Knife Collector. If you previously read my post, you probably wondered what is going with me selling toenails from my collection.

If you didn’t read my post, I shared with iKC that I sold three toenails from my collection and what this sale signified in my life as a collector.

I feel obligated to provide my toenail friends here at ET.com additional information on my decision. First off, the “What” involves my three H. Boker toenails. I have a knife friend I have known probably as long as any other. Prior to collecting toenails I collected H. Bokers and met this collector while hunting the Bokers.

He is as passionate about these knives as we are about toenails. In fact, I would venture to say he owns the largest collection of old Bokers than anyone in the Country. Plus, he bought a large number of knives from me when I sold off my Boker collection.

So, here is how it went down- Over the years we have remained in touch. He would send me info on toenails he ran across while he hunted for old Bokers. He owns close to every pattern, except our favorite- elephant toenails. And while he never approached me directly about selling any of the old toenail Bokers, he did ask me to keep my eyes open, so I know he has been actively looking for many years.

Well, there is a discussion over at iKC where members post what knives they are looking for and, yes, he posted he was looking for any H. Boker toenail, particularly the bone and pearl handled varieties.

I can’t quite explain what happened, but when I read his post I simply felt it was the right thing to do. Yes, I felt compelled to sell him the three Boker toenails I owned.

Needless to say, I contacted my knife friend to tell him I would sell him those knives. He was a true gentleman about it. I gave him the price and he agreed. There was none of the typical haggling that is associated with knife trading, and I appreciate it because that sale was a bittersweet event in my knife collecting life. It represented the first sale of toenails from my collection that weren’t either duplicates or knives I had upgraded from.

I don’t share this with you, my dear toenail friends, in an attempt to evoke sympathy, not in the least bit. Instead, this sale to my knife friend gave me tremendous satisfaction, as I knew he would enjoy those knives probably more than I had.

You know we are crazy about toenails around here, so I just couldn’t make a Christmas message without a toenail in it-

I hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Now that I have your attention- here’s the deal. When we lock in on a knife to buy…sometimes our emotions can override our common sense. We are under the influence at that point; we are intoxicated- We are buying under the influence.

Keep your wits

When you finally find one of those toenail brands or styles you seek, don’t get carried away with emotion. Keep your wits about you.

While we all have gotten swept up in the tide of “I got to get this knife,” when in that situation there may be good reasons for not buying it. It could be it is a counterfeit and your gut is telling you to run; it could be the seller is of questionable reputation and the knife is too good to be true; or it could simply be due to the knife’s condition when the seller won’t budge off of a price that is WAY too high.

Word to the wise

My point here is not to be suspicious of every knife or seller you meet, but, on the other hand, I had a wise man once tell me…”we have our gut feeling for a reason….so you had better listen to it.” Most knives and sellers are fine, but if your gut screams at you….LISTEN. If you don’t feel you have enough experience then get a reputable dealer’s opinion.

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As a followup to my editorial- I am Angry a few issues need further addressed and clarified in light of some of the comments I have received. Thanks for taking an interest and sharing your thoughts with me.

1. I am fine with criticism. Moreover, as long as it is rendered in gentlemanly (or womanly, as the case may be) fashion, you are free to express your thoughts.

2. It seems as if my comments were incorrectly construed to have been defending sham artists (crooks, fakers, and folks who intentionally deceive others) as a result of a link posted on BladeForums.com and that topic’s context.

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I've Got a Beef!

I am angry and I don’t get this angry very often. Without getting into many specifics, allow me to share my observations with you.

Knife collecting will only continue to exist as an industry when folks spending their hard-earned money in good faith believe the knives they buy are authentic. At the point these folks’ confidence in the knife they are buying is shattered then the whole knife collecting hobby/ industry will crash.

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For the last two days I have been a part of the W R Case Collector Appreciation Weekend in Bradford, Pennsylvania, both as a member of the Case Auction Team and as a collector. I have to say I don’t believe I have ever witnessed the sincere gratitude a company has for its consumers like the Case firm has for its collectors and customers. You see and hear the “lip search” many companies attempt to pay to its customers, but usually it is more of a PR effort and staged than heart felt. Any one there over the last two days will attest, Case sincerely appreciates the folks who support and purchase from this company- from its owner and senior management all the way through its associates working in the factory.

This firm recognizes its responsibility to its customers. Let me give you a small example.  I am amazed at the admiration its customers have for the company and its executive team. I have never seen individuals line up to get autographs from corporate executives before. Most consumers are of the what’s-in-it-for-me mentality- “Give me your product or service how I want it when I want it, and if I don’t like something I’ll let you know.”

One of the most intriguing phenomenon is Case’s customers are more fans than consumers, and the Case firm clearly recognizes and accepts the responsibility that comes with this culture. And I must say, the senior management team spend hours meeting and signing autographs for their fans. And Case spent this weekend expressing through a special event that it wanted to let these fans know- it values and appreciates them too.

I’ll add more about my trip over the next week- about the first meeting of the ETCC club, the auction, significant events and people I encountered while in Bradford, but the truth is of all the events and happenings there, I am most impressed with Case’s sincere appreciation for its customers and collectors.

Join me in expressing our gratitude to all who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

Memorial Day gives us an appointed day of the year to appreciate the price that was paid by the men and women who died in service to our country.

On Monday, the last Monday in May, at 2:00 Central Time, a national moment of remembrance takes place. Let us plan to participate in this memorial.

It happened to me a few weeks ago as I was continuing my research and tidbit gathering on Miller Brothers Cutlery Co. While I confess not to be the most qualified researcher out there, I have been able to locate some fairly good bits and pieces on Cutlery Companies including old knife boxes, postcards, letters, canceled checks, photos, etc. These items give us a very brief glimpse of a particular instant in time- Freezing time for us to see it as it was back then.

As you probably know, one of the most interesting aspects of collecting vintage toenails is being able to look through the window provided by such memorabilia to see what it was like then. I call it the “Life and Times” of the Golden Era of American Cutlery history (the late 1800’s to early 1900’s).

Well, the other day, I was doing my research on Miller Brothers. If you read the the Miller Brothers article here in The News you know this is a very interesting firm with a fair amount of info available for us. I have been working on accumulating anything Miller Brothers (except non-toenail knives) and even have an ad running in Knife World looking for MB stuff.

Well, on this day I was searching deep into the bowels of my hard drive when I ran across an eBay sale from Nov. 2004 of a Miller Bros. billhead (letterhead/invoice). The billhead was dated April 30th, 1897. Here is the actual photo the seller used for the auction.

I actually had saved this auction’s page on my computer at the time the auction ended. As I was preparing to open the HTML file I thought to myself- “gosh, I wish I had this billhead. I need to contact the guy who bought it and see if he would be willing to sell it to me, even if I had to offer his a handsome profit to get my grubby lit’le hands on it.”

I scanned down the eBay page to find the buyer’s name and much to my surprise….. it was me.

Sometimes we just have to laugh at ourselves, don’t we?

I happened to be in the middle of an email conversation (that lasted several days) with our honorary member, Mr. Mark Zalesky (editor of Knife World) so I mentioned this funny story to him. Evidently he thought it was funny too. I understand he used it in his editorial for this next edition. (He said the names were changed to protect the innocent, we’ll see.)

In the recent series of What determines Price in Part II we looked at how the price paid for a particular knife doesn’t always reflect the market value of that knife due to either an over-motivated buyer or seller.

Now in this final installment I want to examine these sales approaches (alternatives) from a price perspective. I know there are other factors and we examined those in What is the best approach to sale for you individually based on your personal criteria. Then in Part two- Sales Alternatives we looked at the pros and cons of the different sales approaches.

The question before us now is- “Are there times the method used actually affects the price (the outcome)?” I’m talking something like a glitch or problem with the system itself that would affect the results.

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