1 of 50 Alcas Cutco Aurum Etchings Folding Lockback Pocket Knife

I recently received some additional information from an Alcas employee stating this was a salesman's prototype with only about 50 being made for the bicentennial and was never released to the public.  This corroborates what is said by Sam Shortes, the founder of Aurum Etchings (see below).



This is a scarce prototype folding lockback from Aurum etchings.  The knife is new, but does have some very light storage marks on the handle (the blade is pristine). The blade opens and closes with very good snap.  The knife is 4 1/2" closed and has a 3 1/2" blade.  7" when fully open.
I have talked to various other collectors over the decades and I have never heard a definitive answer on who actually made the knife before Aurum etched it.  Some have suggested Bowen, others Alcas or Cutco.  That is, until now!  After some extensive research, I got in contact with Samuel Shortes, the founder of Aurum and sent him photos of the knife.  After seeing it, he stated that it was made for them by Alcas (who made Cutco at the time), and that it was a salesman's prototype item never released to the public.  And as such, less than 50 were ever made!



More known for their Buck 110 and Harley Davidson folding knives, Aurum mostly did etched blades with an outdoor motif - deer, bear, ducks etc.  This knife was definitely an "off topic" for Aurum, but one they hoped would generate a lot of interest with the upcoming Bicentennial.  Well, it didn't and it never went into production, making it a very scarce knife to find.  Feel free to Google it for a few hours like I did, you won't find one even mentioned anywhere!  I've owned it for 20 some years along with one other prototype Aurum knife, both of which are now for sale. 




Here is the reply I received from Sam Shortes:


Aurum's primary business was decorating firearms.  We did thousands of them:   Colts, Winchesters, Remingtons.   At the same time we chemically etched and/or plated thousands of Buck Knives.   

For a time we tried to develop "knife product line of our own " which we eventually abandoned because we were too small to support such a personnel intense activity. It was easier to simply work with companies---Buck Knives, Colt, Winchester, Remington. 

What you have are some of those few knives produced during that period. In some cases, there were no more than a hundred or so actually produced. Those knives are very rare now. We did them on Buck Knives and on Alcas knives. Some of the ones we did on Buck knives get confused with the ones  we did  for Buck directly-----but they were different from their programs.  They are quite rare and the ones done under the "Aurum"  (Alcas) label are highly collected and often sell for around $500 each.  The "We the People" knife was our attempt at a commemorative offering.  


As it turns out, because these were shut down, they are rare and have developed a real value on the collector's market ---which is very strong.


Sam Shortes
Former President of Aurum Etchings



 


A bit about Aurum -

Aurum Etchings was a company that existed from 1974 to 1991.  They were well known for their high end deep acid etching of outdoor hunting scenes, mostly onto guns like Winchester and Colt, but also to a lesser degree onto hunting knives. And of those hunting knives, the vast, vast majority were for Buck knives, and much of that was on the Buck 110 model folder.  Their items were extremely sought after and the founder of the company, Samuel Shortes, even presented various pieces to Ronald Reagan when he was president.




Please review all of the photos as they are part of the description.  Photos will supersede any written descriptions in case I missed noting anything or made an error in what I did write, so please look closely and ask questions if in doubt.