Well, I won't get a ticket in Tobias' "post in a group contest", but I want to document my finds from today's local swap meet.

First off, we have a small swap, not like the ones you might find in larger metro areas. Ours is a little bit of a throwback to the swaps we remember as kids, lots of used stuff, not that many dealers selling cheap Chinese junk. I'm finding that as far as knife collecting goes, our little local swap is a good place to find those hidden treasures at sometimes ridiculously low prices. Today was a mix of both, stupid cheap to reasonable....I'll take it!

First is a long-sought-after by me, USA 1967-1972 Buck 311 Trapper that I paid $20 for. Considering it's age and condition it was the "reasonable" find of the day. The Buck came from a "gypsy" table, a seller who just dropped in while traveling through the area on his way somewhere else. He had several knives, including a Case Trapper I passed on, (asked too much, plus the CV blades were awful), and this Buck 311. He asked $30 initially, so I sat it down and acted like I wasn't interested. Before I left I picked it up again and offered him a Jackson and he accepted; cool!! The knife is very well preserved, tight blades, well centered, and the handle was nearly pristine. I hit the blades with a stone and stropped it when I got home and the blades sharpened up nicely. Not a steal of a deal, but like I said, "reasonable".

Also stopped by the same vendor where I got the pre-1931 NYK Co pen knife from previously, and found three more knives there for cheap. The larger of the two pen knives is a German "Whale" stamped, smooth bone pen knife, and the second is a Hammer Brand pen knife, also with smooth white bone handles, ($2 each). He also had a Kamp King with a broken main blade that I bought for $2 for parts. I needed a bail for the all-metal Kamp King I already had, so I robbed the bail off of the broken one and put it on the other one. Cool, a "stock" bail for my now-complete old Kamp King, and a parts knife in case I need to repair it again.

All in all I got out of there for $26, not a bad day at the swap!