General Care Principles For Valuable & Antique Knives

Here are four main general care principles to care for your valuable or antique knives.

Carrying valuable knives in your pocket will reduce their value.

Carrying a Pinched Peanut with Mammoth ivory scales — *Carrying knives reduces their value*

For some collectors, the pleasure of carrying a blade is worth the decrease in value, just be aware that the knife won’t retain full value.

Every mark on your knife will reduce the value – even if carried unused in the pocket it can be scratched by keys and other objects.

Wipe your knife down

*“Spit pits” on blades that weren’t wiped down cause rust, reducing value*

After handling, wipe your blade and bolsters down with a Sheepskin Chamois or Polishing Cloth. Sometimes oils from your fingers will cause spots to appear on your knife.

We have received old Hen & Rooster Knives that hadn’t been handled in decades, and they had fingerprint marks because the acid in the oil from someone’s finger had slowly marked the blade over the years.

Sometimes little flecks of spittle from talking land on a blade and aren’t wiped off. These little flecks can cause corrosion if they aren’t removed. They are sometimes referred to as “Spit Pits.”

Do not do any work to “fix, refurbish, or restore” a valuable or antique knife.

No sharpening, no sanding, no re-profiling, no changing the finish, no sharpening, no grinding off rust spots, no sharpening. These will always reduce your knife’s value.

Did we mention no sharpening? Keeping the original edge is better than having a sharper edge; it is best to keep the edge original.

If the blade is less than 15 years old and you plan to sell it as a quality work knife, having it professionally sharpened may or may not increase the value. If possible, have the original maker sharpen it.

Do not leave any stickers, tape, or glue on any part of your knife long term.

*Example of stickers attracting moisture & rust*

The glue can embed itself and become difficult to remove. Sometimes stickers will leave shadows.

The pictured knife can be easily restored with some Goo Gone and Simichrome or Flitz polish. You can see where the sticker attracted water and started encouraging rust on the blade at the top of the sticker. Eventually, if the sticker is on long enough, it will create a permanent mark or shadow. Below is a knife with a coral Rucarta handle that has a faint sticker shadow in the middle of the handle. While it isn’t a glaring problem in the picture, it is noticeable in person.

*Handle shadow due to a long term sticker & perhaps a little sunlight*

We received a potentially $700 knife with its edge covered in tape – except the tape had been left on for years. It created a visible shadow, and we estimate a loss of $300.

Use Goo-Gone to remove old glue & stickers.
A paper tag with a string on is best if you need to attach information to your knife.

Do not engrave or otherwise mark your knife or sheath.

If you want to keep the possibility of resale open, don’t personalize the knife. Every personalization added makes it that much less appealing to others.

Thanks for reading!

Look at our other articles about valuable and antique knives:

- Since 1968 -