A Cautionary Tale

Some Of The Challenges Of Buying Or Selling Knives With A Story

There’s an old adage within the knife collecting community that goes something like; ‘buy the knife, not the story’..! A recent experience reminded me of this and of the challenges when buying or selling a knife that has a story, some history or related items associated with it. Over the years I have come across many such knives and it remains nearly impossible to authenticate the history and/or any related items 100%. However if we are to retain the important history associated with certain pieces, then one must not completely disregard such potential history. We must all do our due diligence as both seller and buyer to be as certain as we can that a particular knife or grouping and any history associated with it is something we are comfortable with. After all, there is only one person that you need to please and that’s yourself.

A recent experience (or should I say ‘saga’) that unfolded over some months got me thinking that perhaps this would be a story worth sharing with my fellow F-S enthusiasts. Forgive the lack of any photographs and/or specific details within this short essay, as I have decided it is best to protect the individual’s identity in question. I didn’t want to share any images or specific details which would possibly undermine that.

It all started several months ago when I was contacted by a UK-based gentleman who wanted some assistance correctly identifying three F-S Knives in his possession. Although in quite terrible and heavily used condition, I was able to confirm they were all in fact correct wartime production knives though due to their very sorry state had very little ‘collectors’ value. During our conversations over subsequent weeks, he mentioned that he had carried them during his service with the Parachute Regiment in the 1970’s. This peaked my interest as the knives were undoubtedly of wartime manufacture and although I have previously found examples that remained ‘in stores’ and were reissued much later, the topic deserved further investigation. We carried on exchanging emails back and forth over many weeks/months and as the story unfolded an interesting history started to unfold. All three F-S knives had apparently been issued to his father who had served in the Parachute Regiment during WWII. When his son (my potential consigner) followed in his father’s footsteps and also joined the Paras, the knives were gifted to him for use during his service.

I confess the story intrigued me, as to find original wartime knives (despite their terrible condition) with 'multi-generational service' is something I had not previously come across. As he was hoping to consign these knives with me, I encouraged him to see if he could supply some provenance. Potential items may have included any items from his or his father’s military service such as documents, photographs, insignia etc. as this would preserve the history and may be interesting to a potential new owner. The knives would never be especially valuable but some verified history would potentially give them some historical context and interest.

During our conversations my contact did share with me some photographs and military documents from his service, so I felt comfortable he had served with the Paras during the 1970’s. At that point I felt it was appropriate to move forward. We chatted a few more times and eventually he boxed up all the knives and said he had included many pieces of insignia from his service.

In due course the package arrived and in unwrapping it I was surprised to see not only a good selection of Parachute Regimental insignia but also some Special Air Service pieces, too. Now I know from personal experience that a good number of those going through the SAS selection process originate from the Paras, so although surprising it wasn’t at all unusual that this gent had gone on to serve with the SAS. Now of course if correct, having these knives serve within the SAS and insignia to support this, even though post-war, is quite exciting indeed. So in subsequent emails I approached the topic of his potential connection with the SAS. This is where our story starts to develop some cracks!

Despite my best efforts, in the coming weeks my contact became a little hesitant to share too much more about his service and in particular avoided my questions regarding any SAS connection. I continued to gently and respectfully press him on his service with the SAS which he had eluded to as well as to get absolutely confirmation that the insignia he sent was actually worn by him and during his service (in both the Paras and SAS), however my efforts were to no avail as he continued to be evasive to my increasingly direct questions. His reasoning behind this would soon become apparent!

When non F-S items come my way I occasionally find myself reaching out to trusted friends and fellow experts to authenticate certain items. With such a large group of Para and now SAS insignia, I felt it best to take this course of action. I will confess my disappointment was palpable when every single piece turned out to be fake. This left me in a rather uncomfortable position

Ultimately I had to write this gentleman and inform him that all of the insignia he had sent was in fact fake and I would be returning the whole group. Now, to his credit his reply was profoundly apologetic and he took complete responsibility for ruining the project and waisting my time. He went on to admit that he had ‘acquired’ the insignia as to ‘enhance’ the history and had placed his trust in sellers who had informed him that all were completely genuine. He somewhat naively thought this was okay! He continued to relate that he now realized this was completely wrong and that some of his replies to me were “wishy washy” and not completely frank, forthright or honest for which he apologized.

The story of his father’s service and him passing on the knives for his son to use during his Para service in the 1970’s I believe to be true, as he did share with me photographs and official military documents, etc. I think what went wrong is perhaps he got carried away in attempting to ‘pad’ the story with other items that he believed to be real but ultimately turned out to be fake.

The moral of course, is to as much as is reasonably practicable check the history, seek advice and second opinions and to look at the whole project with a clear and critical head. I have been dealing in the F-S Knife as my only occupation for nearly two decades now and have unearthed some truly extraordinary and historic groupings, some with incredible provenance and some with tentative but credible history. So it remains of utmost importance to me to maintain not only my hard earned reputation but also the integrity of the history of such artifacts. Ultimately I put a lot of work into this project and sadly it fell apart, not because the knives were not genuine and not because of their history BUT because the owner chose to be less than completely forthright and honest - with me and himself.

I hope this ‘cautionary tale’ was of interest and that perhaps we all learned something. I will finish as I started; always buy the knife, not the story. However if the story and history enhances your enjoyment of ownership then that’s all that matters.

Cheerio & happy collecting,

Roy