1917 Trench Knife 8 knuckle

[williamcolt]

My wife recently bought a group of ww1 knives at a garage sale. I am not a knife person and am trying learn more about them. One is a 1917 trench knife with 8 rather than the usual 7 knuckles. It is in excellent condition but has no scabbard. The only markings on it are on the hilt: U.S. L.S. & C. 1917. One knife guy told me it is rare and valuable and another said it is nothing special. I would like to know more about it. I plan to sell the knife but want to get fair value for it and at the moment I don't know to price it. Any info on my knife will be greatly appreciated.

Information

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[LimeyCarbineLover]

William that will be L F & C (Landers Frary and Clark)...and in my limited knowledge of WW1 knuckle knifes 8 pont ones are scarcer and as a result bring more money that standard ones....Tony in NH is the knuckle knife guru he will surely chip in and advise better than me.

Regards

Lloyd

[Tony-in-NH]

Extra points are scarcer, but they are around. I had 3 of them, sold one recently. Condition is everything on these, without pictures it is impossible to determine value. That being said 0.00- 1000.00

[Harlan (Deceased)]

Welcome to the forum williamcolt

Keep in mind there are copies of about all the rare WWI knives, and some have been out long enough to have there own patina.

Photos are a must to determine if they're authentic, and if they are authentic the condition will show in photos. Condition means a everything in value, and small nuances to you may be a big difference in value to a knowledgeable knife collector.

Of couse your wife did nothing wrong when buying them at repro price, but personally if they're very valuable originals I'd have to contact the person selling a table full of rare and valuable knives to find their history. Does the person who collected them know they were sold at garage sale prices. Even if they belonged to great grandpa and they're authentic I'd feel bad if they were bought for a small fraction of their worth.

I had a book from the 30's signed by Billy Mitchel and my mom sold it for 10 cents in one of her garage sales. I left it there on a bookshelf from when I was young, and after my dad died she had a garage sale and sold every book including my rare book. My mom sort of freaked out after my dad passed away and she sold about everything he had, including his gun collection for pennies on the dollar without telling us kids.

It could be they're repro knives and the person who owned them just wanted to get rid of them and it's no big deal either way. Really, the cart is before the horse until you can post some good detailed photos. If you need help posting photos here I made up two step by step illustrated tutorials. There are two means to do it.

1) store your photos on a host sight and then 'insert' it into your massage - Detailed instructions here -

How do I upload pictures to my posts for storage on milsurps.com?

2) Navigate to your photo and attach it to post it directly. This will create a thumbnail where you click on it to enlarge it.

How do I show pics from Photobucket, Flickr, ImageShack etc. on milsurps.com?

If you shave problems posting please don't hesitate to PM me and I'll see if I can help.

~ Harlan