February 2010 Flea Market Find Roy Humenick I Asked the Vendor How Much He Wanted I Like Adventure and One of the Ways I Find It Is at the Flea Market
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Flea Market Find Special T-Shirt Drawing The Secret CIA Knife Tangs Guards & Handles T-Shirts Display Award Knives Ourinternational membership is happily involved with “Anything that goes ‘cut’!” February 2010 Flea Market Find Roy Humenick I asked the vendor how much he wanted I like adventure and one of the ways I find it is at the flea market. You for the knife. He said, never know what you may find there. Onceyou find an interesting item “Ten dollars.” I asked, and want to “How about five purchase it, you dollars?” He said no, then must deal and walked away. I with the merchant. examined the knife a More adventure. little longer and asked This story is about him if he would take one of those six dollars. He kept unexpected finds. his distance and did not respond. Then I decided to get the six dollars out of my wallet and My local flea waived the cash in the air. He eventually made his way over to me and market has a fair snapped the six dollars out of my hand. I thanked him and moved on number of before he changed his mind. merchants who barely speak any English. Many acquire their wares from bidding on vacated storage lockers. Their yield seems to consist I know what you are thinking, why did I offer him less? I would have of about 50% tools and the rest are household items – shelves, furniture gladly paid ten dollars for the knife. All I can say is that is what you do and kitchen stuff. Now the adventure is all about trying to find that at flea markets. This is a case of a vendor only seeing a rusty chef’s item that is worth way more than what the merchant has any idea knife and figuring about. One universal rule of thumb used by merchants is, “Shiny stuff its worth at what is worth more than the rusty stuff.” someone might pay for such a thing. I There is usually a lot of stuff to sift through, so some effort is required. felt it was worth Opening drawers, lifting boxes and climbing over stacks of stuff is all more, and this is part of the fun. There seems to be a constant stream of this type of ware what makes the coming in to the flea market. If you make regular visits to the market, ordeal so much fun. you get to recognize new stuff when it arrives. The idea is to get to that rare find before anyone else discovers it. Now that I had the knife, I decided to On one particular occasion do a little research. I came across a rusty chef’s Aquick search on the internet did not find much, but I did come across knife. It was made in a few discussions between professional chefs. Most of the discussions France and had a very appeared to be debates concerning the use of stainless cutlery verses distinct stamp on the blade carbon steel cutlery. Each side had its pros and cons. As far as the that looked something like stamp, one person commented, “Haven't heard of Sabatier Paris. I this: normally hear of Lion Sabatier or Elephant Sabatier.” And another explained "Veritable breswick" sometimes appear on eBay auctions Veritable Breswick and inevitably fetch sky high bids. EBay is not the place for a good buy Sabatier Paris -France in carbon steel, as there are too many crazy collectors lurking around.” Chef au Ritz So I am feeling pretty good about my flea market find at this time. It The blade was about 12 might be worth my time restoring this piece of history. If I replace the inches long with the whole knife about 17-1/2 inches in length. It was a handle, it might serve well in the kitchen. So I went about removing the fairly large knife. All of the metal looked like it was there even though old handle and squaring up the handle area. I decided to use koa wood it had a coat of rust over its entirety. The handle was cracked in several and stainless pins. I fitted up one of the koa scales and glued it on one places and had seen some repair work. What drew my attention to this side of the tang. I then drilled a new set of holes for the pins through the knife was its integral construction. It had an integral bolster tapered tang and on through the koa wood on the far side. The original configuration and even a tapered tang. It is really rare to see these maker(s) had tempered the tang properly so I was able to drill through features in aknife these days other than in a custom made one. (continued on page 6) CIA Knife Revealed As promised in the last issue, the CIA secret knife is shown below. Consider the last issue as the top secret operating instructions. Thanks, I think, go to Mike Silvey and Bob Lowry for this special unveiling. Custom Knife Competition for 2010 John Priest The Knife Show and the judging of the custom knives is coming up Cover your logo. We realize again; and it seems we are in arut, but it’s a good rut. that some makers are easily recognized but cover it Last year we started a new category, Totally Hand Made Knives. The anyway. idea being that the knife had to be made without power tools, with a couple of exceptions. The initial interest was heartening, but the Only one entry per category, response was under-whelming. So this year, if you intend to enter the and the judges reserve the competition in this category, you’ll have to contact Elayne (541-484- right to move a knife to what 5564 or email [email protected]) and voice your they consider a more intentions. If we don’t get enough entrants by mid-March, we’ll drop appropriate category. the category. And finally. We only judge Every year we have a number of questions come up about the judging, the knife. Unless the sheath is so I’ll try to answer the most often asked ones. an integral part of the whole, we don’t want it. You are We have three judges, at least one maker and one collector and of the encouraged to include any three we have one local resident. Fortunately we have never had any special information about the trouble finding judges with great qualifications who are willing to knife on the entry form. spend time away from their tables Friday afternoon to help the Show, and we owe these people a real vote of thanks for their service. I should Once again, PLEASE READ THE RULES ! ! ! point out here that I don’t take part in the judging. In fact, I usually take advantage of this time to walk around the Show. The Categories: Art READ THE RULES! Every table-holder gets a copy and over the Bowie years we’ve refined them; but if there are any questions, I try to answer Damascus the easy ones and the Show Chairman takes the complex ones. Fighting Folding The competition is on the Honor System. We have neither the time nor Hand Forged the energy to police all the entrants, however keep in mind that your Hunter Utility peers will be watching. Miniature NewMaker Totally Hand Made (??) Page2 organizations culture. I am quite OKCA Knews proud of this, and it too is a driving force for the work I do to make this a and Musings worthwhile organization.This almost ibdennis sounds like a solicitation, but that is not the intention. It just makes me feel T-Shirt drawing.... good to see the creation and to be a Our 2010 T-Shirt offering is turning into a fun part of it, and I wanted to share my event. We received a folding knife that we are thoughts. going to use in a very special prize drawing. On Saturday, April 17, we will give out a Display Cases.... drawing ticket to anyone that is wearing the For the last few years we have offered Oregon Knife Collectors 2010 T-Shirt. Wear wood display case rental for our out your shirt and come to the Club table to get a of area guests. We are again ticket. Only those wearing the shirt will be offering this, however by Show allowed to enter into this drawing. Around 4 Time they usually have all been pm on Saturday, we will have the drawing spoken for. In other words if you which will be for a very special knife that will are interested in getting a case for be a secret for now. This knife carries a MSRP the Show, you had better let us of over $200. Order your T-shirts from the know way early. application in thisKnewslettter or go to our website to order one or more on line. The link Tables at theShow....... to the on-line site will get you your shirt before As of this writing, and for all intents and purposes, we can pretty well state the Show. This should be a fun time so join in Places to stay in Eugene this happening. OBTW - You have to be a sold out Show for April. Now we are working on a waiting list. Get your lodging reservations in soon or you wearing the T-Shirt when you claim the prize might have to bring your tent. should you be the winner.