WWII OSS Stiletto with "Pancake Flipper" Sheath
GUEST: I brought this dagger that I believe is a World War II O.S.S. dagger. It was issued to my dad's uncle, so my great-uncle.
APPRAISER: And what did he do during World War II?
GUEST: He was in the O.S.S., and that's pretty much all I know.
APPRAISER: So you don't know any details of his service?
GUEST: No-- I think they weren't supposed to talk about it.
APPRAISER: And do you know what the O.S.S. is?
GUEST: Uh, I, my family always said it was the precursor to, like, the C.I.A., like an intelligence agency-type.
APPRAISER: It's exactly what it was-- the Office of Strategic Services was established in 1942 by FDR to be our first real intelligence agency. This knife is exactly what you believe it to be.
GUEST: (chuckling) Cool.
APPRAISER: It is an O.S.S. stiletto. It's copied from the Fairbairn-Sykes commando fighting knife that the British developed. You'll notice that it's not marked anywhere. And that's called sterile. Because these were being used behind enemy lines...
GUEST: Mm.
APPRAISER: ...and you didn't want to be able to trace them back to a country of origin or what units might be using them. It was made by a company called Landers, Frary, and Clark, out of Connecticut. They had made things during World War I, including fighting knives and canteens, but that's not what their primary business was. Do you have any idea what they really did in peacetime?
GUEST: Mm. Nope, no.
APPRAISER: Well...
GUEST: Spatulas? (laughing)
APPRAISER: You're exactly right.
GUEST: (laughs)
APPRAISER: They made everything that was made out of metal, from kitchen implements...
GUEST: God...
APPRAISER: ...like spatulas...
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: ...to, uh, toasters. The, the firm was started in 1865, right after the Civil War, and was in business to 1965, making every sort of little metal item you could possibly think of.
GUEST: Oh, okay.
APPRAISER: So collectors actually refer to this scabbard, the sheath for the knife, as the pancake flipper scabbard.
GUEST: (chuckles)
APPRAISER: Those grooves give you a place to put your belt and the handle supports the leather sheath. Do you have any idea what this might be worth?
GUEST: No, not really.
APPRAISER: It's a rare and desirable knife. They only made about 10,000 of these. LF&C received a contract to make these knives in 1942, and they delivered them between 1942 and 1943. The contract price was $2.03 apiece.
GUEST: (chuckles)
APPRAISER: This one is in just about pristine condition. The only thing missing is, there was a little rubber O-ring that went right here that held the hilt...
GUEST: Oh, okay.
APPRAISER: ...to the top of the scabbard. Uh, in the condition it's in, I think a conservative auction estimate is $2,500 to $3,500.
GUEST: All right.
APPRAISER: And it could easily do more than that.
GUEST: All right.
APPRAISER: They do make fakes of these. This one's 100% real and legit.
GUEST: All right, cool.
$2,500 - $3,500 Auction
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Understanding Our Appraisals
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
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