HOW TO BUY CUSTOM KNIVES PART III

When every other aspect of the experience has been weighed, a knife will either be bought or passed up when the prospective buyer has taken a good, long look at it.

In this day of the internet and the visual option, handling the knife is not always a part of the process. In that case, let the buyer beware. However, whether a knife is fulfilling a custom order, bought from the table at a show or online, or when a deal is struck one-on-one with the maker, another collector or a purveyor, it is the knife first and foremost that closes or breaks the deal.

So, when the time comes, what should the discriminating buyer with money burning a hole in his or her pocket look for in a custom knife?

“The first thing to consider is what the knife will be used for,” advised Sako Rouchanian of Recon 1 Quality Knives and Gear in Los Angeles. “The market has changed dramatically from back in the day when the collector would put a knife in a safe and pull it out