Identify Unknown Chef's Knife Estate Find and Suggestions to clean and re-sell? (2 of 2 threads)

Here is the other knife she picked up, again for half-a-buck. Can you identify the markings?

( Bigger photos in the gallery here: http://geneh.smugmug.com/Other/Kitchen-Knife/31796417_Q8zQxQ )

(I am helping a coworker who supplements her income reselling antiques and other stuff. On my suggestion she started watching for carbon knifes and landed this unknown knife at a garage sale. I want to clean it up and rehandle it so she can net the most from selling it. So my question is how much should I clean it up with find steel wool and sharpen it, or pretty much leave it alone? What might sell higher? The edge is actually nice, not dished from use / sharpening, but this blade does have a bend in it. It's very thin, light and flexible. Attached are pictures. She would really appreciate anything we can do for her.



Bend in Blade:



Handle pulled off (ugh, the SMELL!) Showing the bolster and tang.


Markings:

pretty sure the top letters could be LF&C which would be Lander's Frary and Clarke Universal brand They were famous for both the universal brand and the AETNA works brand. They made everything from coffee percolators to toasters. The company started up in 1865 and the universal line started sometime in the earlier 1890's The discontinued making cutlery in 1950 and went out of business in 1865. They lasted exactly 100 years, The knife you have there is a very well made chef knife dating from around the turn of the century to around 1920. It has pewter bolsters and ebony handle. 12 in carbon steel blade. At the time this was made it was one of the best around and it still is.

Yep looks like the one I have. Here is my post from back when I found mine

http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/showthread.php/10997-Universal-L-F-amp-C

I found that once mine was cleaned up the steel took on a wonderful patina

I meant went out of business in 1965

Son you are a knife god. How the heck do you know all this stuff?! You are the man, MAN! :knife:

if it's an ebony handle, What are the streaks of color on the handle?

tape and crud

Great information, thank you. We were both pretty surprised at the age. It's fun to find things like this.

So now what? Any clues what we should do so Roberta can get the most $ out of it? Re-glue the original (ugh) handle back on - seems like a poor proposition unless a collector stumbles on her sale and the scratches on the blade doesn't matter either, or do I re-handle it for her and make it useful to someone? Suggestions where to look for more info about how to restore for resale?

Make it useful in the condition it is in now no collector would want it. Rehandle it an take some fine emery get the rust off , sharpen and oil it and it will be good to go. This isn't one you need to make new. It isn't particularly valuable . it is just a good cutter when in good shape. I would say after a good rehandle and blade cleanup she could get $100-$150 on the retail market and that's from someone who knows what they are looking at. As is about $ 25 to$40 again if someone knows what they are looking at.

sachem allison said:

Make it useful in the condition it is in now no collector would want it. Rehandle it an take some fine emery get the rust off , sharpen and oil it and it will be good to go. This isn't one you need to make new. It isn't particularly valuable . it is just a good cutter when in good shape. I would say after a good rehandle and blade cleanup she could get $100-$150 on the retail market and that's from someone who knows what they are looking at. As is about $ 25 to$40 again if someone knows what they are looking at.

Click to expand...

Thank you for that. This sounds like a low risk, and somewhat challenging project to fix up. Not even sure how to go about it with that hooked-in bolster.

You can always take the bolster off and make it a hidden tang western handle or even a wa handle. That pewter is soft and will come off relatively easily.
Otherwise make the handle the same shape and dimension as the original. drill out an oversized cavity, mark on the bolster end where the two wings go in, cut a slot on either side to fit the wings into. Now finish shaping the handle, place epoxy into the hole. At this point very gently tap the wings on the bolster so that they each angle slightly toward the tang. place the tang into the epoxied cavity and press the blade as far as it will go onto the handle. The wings should click into the slots that you made and lock everything into place. wipe off the excess epoxy and when everything is dried finish sand and apply your coating.