Originally Posted By: Michael_Mason
Originally Posted By: crutchtip
There is an old adage, "Buy the knife not the story". That often holds true, but if you can back the story up, it is even better.

Joe,

You know there are more knives out there without the provenance, than there are with. More transactions of knife sales without, than with.

Sure, it's an added bonus when you can have that, but I wouldn't want to discourage someone from purchasing a knife simply because it didn't have a paperwork trail following it.

The quoted statement above is about as good advice as can be given.


True Michael, but many folks don't think to ask which results in any history being lost forever. Again, the provenance thing is a personal preference evolved over 25 years of collecting. Perhaps it isn't important to some, that is ok, and I have never discouraged anyone from going after something that interests them. A side bonus to gathering provenance is that it can answer many questions about what was going on in the shop when a particular knife was made including, style of blade grind, standard model configurations, and options used. As you cans see in the #2 thread, I posted some nice pieces with great provenance. I may do some more time permitting.

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