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Comment by Halicon on October 26, 2011 at 20:52

You have to specify what you seek more. Traditional cutlery, handmade modern knives, esoteric forging on modern blades etc etc. There's simply way too many areas that cover "Japanese pocket knives" since their history is extremely detailed and you can go from kogatana (companion blade to swords) to higonokami (very early and rustic folding knife) to handmade folders or the production blades being churned out, of whom the 2 latter are good quality but don't stand in very high regard for me.

Comment by Shlomo ben Maved on October 22, 2011 at 1:29

The problem lies where in Asia? 

Indonesia, Borneo, Philippines, Burma, Nepal, India, China, Mongolia, Turkey, Iran and Japan all have unique knives, swords and other edged weapons.

 

The most common known Asian pocket (folder) knife is the Filipino Balisomg (Butterfly) knife and there are a few books on their value, construction and usage as well as numerous web sites devoted to them.

 

Unless you are referring to the slew of folders being made in Asia (mainly in China) for lots of the big name knife companies?

 

These are the "Bibles" for knife collecting and all have some space devoted to other countries' knives:

 

Parker, James "Buzz" &….. Ed Henley….. Pocket Knife Trader's Guide - 8 volumes

Ritchie, Roy & ….. Ron Stewart ….. Big Book Of Pocket Knives - 2 volumes

 

Delta Press….. Everybody's Knife Bible

Levine….. Bernard….. Levine's Guide To Knives And Their Values - 5 volumes

Price….. C. Houston….. The Official Price Guide To Collector Knives - 20 volumes

Ritchie, Roy & ….. Ron Stewart ….. The Standard Knife Collector's Guide - 5 volumes

Sargent….. Jim….. American Premium Guide To Knives And Razors - 6 volumes

Shackleford….. Ed….. Blade's Guide To Knives And Their Values - 5 volumes

 

I really don't know of any price guides devoted primarily for Oriental blades but then again, it's not really a niche that I collect or have an interest in...Has a lot to do with the fact that "butterfly" knives are illegal where I live.

 

Hope this helps.

Comment by Jan Carter on October 21, 2011 at 18:39

Sorry Dave I dont know enough about them to advise on this peice.  I know we have some folks that collect the Asian peices so how about it folks...Anyone know of some reading on the subject?