This extensive price guide focuses primarily on pocketknives, and includes almost 1500 illustrations - many in an expanded color section.

Throughly Updated
Expanded RBR Evaluation Scales
1454 Illustrations
Extensive Color Section
Over 750 Pages

BOOK REVIEW (of current 5th Edition)
reviewed by Knife World Staff

The subtitle to this hefty little book is Identification and Values, which pretty well sums up in what way it is most useful to the collector. With this new edition, the book that began life many years ago in the form of The Kentucky Knife Traders Manual has grown to over 750 pages of information, illustrations, and values, as authors Roy Ritchie and Ron Stewart continue to add the details that make a portable reference like this an absolute necessity.

As with the other books of this type, The Standard Knife Collector’s Guide begins with an introduction to knife collecting that includes basic information on the history of knives, knife collecting, and the shields, blades, and knife patterns that are most often encountered by pocketknife collectors. It then moves on to the RBR System for “Total Appraisal,” which to many will be the most used section of the book – nearly a hundred pages of manufacturer listings, pattern listings, and a detailed guide to condition grading that, together, allow the collector to estimate value for a very wide range of folding knives.

The book continues with short, illustrated profiles of major knife companies from Aerial Cutlery to George Wostenholm, hitting those such as Belknap Hardware, Camillus, Case, Maher & Grosh, Queen, Remington, Schrade, Western, and Winchester along the way, as well as many others. This is followed by brief sections on Custom-Made Knives, Sheath and Hunting Knives, Carving and Kitchen Cutlery, Straight Razors, and Commemoratives, Reproductions, and Limited Edition Knives.

Other sections include Care and Management of a Knife Collection, Knife Sharpening, Cutlery Stores and Dealers, Knife Books and Periodicals, and Knife Clubs. One of the most useful parts of the entire book is the section on handle materials, which displays a wide range of handle materials entirely in color – a very useful tool for the beginning collector.

Before wrapping up with a glossary, there are detailed listings, by pattern number, for seven different knife brands: Buck Creek, Case, Cattaraugus, Remington, Robeson, Taylor, and Winchester (the two on Taylor and Buck Creek, a Taylor brand, are the only ones that have been published to my knowledge.)

The Standard Knife Collector’s Guide, Fifth Edition is a useful basic reference, particularly for pocket knife collectors and especially so for those just starting out. Best of all, the price is very reasonable, and there’s enough material here to keep the knife lover reading for a long time to come.

keywords: pocket, commemorative, repro, limited edition, reproduction, Buck Creek, Case, Cattaraugus, Remington, Robeson, Taylor, Winchester

Softcover, 752 pp.

Availability: Usually ships the next business day.

$16.95