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.