It's been a pretty excellent couple of weeks for my Lum collection. A couple of weeks ago, I scored one of Bob's Catalog from 1981 (Pre-Eugene OR!!!! more info in my Lum Blog). Which helped to fill in some info about his early work. This weekend, thanks to a collector from Florida, I scored an old Lum fixed blade (LUM stamp, so it makes it pre-1985), that will now be my preferred letter opener. Once I make a nice stand for it.  Handle is well aged ivory micarta, SS bolsters with a black spacer, and tapered tang. The blade profile is very similar to his Stalker model (especially in the Folding Stalker model). But the handle is not what wound up on the final Stalker model. Best that I can guess is that this would be something that Bob would classify as a Boot Knife or Dirk. And in his unique naming scheme, it would probably be called a Deluxe Stalker Non-Folder Boot Knife (please don't quote me on that, it's an inside joke on how Bob prefers to name something a "Non-Folder" as compared to "Fixed Blade"). Not the most unique of Bob's work. But I really get a kick when I can score his older stuff. Enjoy.

CustomSpyderco.Com

Came across this little beauty in one of the knife forums (photos copyright to the original photographer):

It's a custom "Pimped" Large Chinese Folder with 400 year old oak scales, buffalo horn bolsters, and a anodized blue titanium liner. The work was done by a firm called CustomSpyderco.com. Which, from a glance at the their website, does very nice work. A very creative alternative to own an unique Lum.

Sometimes Ebay Pays Off

I generally do not like Ebay, as it's not a very knife friendly place. However, once in a while, you find a diamond among the thousands of offerings. In this case, Item #261008813736, a Bob Lum Catalog dated from 1980, when he was still living in Santa Barbara CA., before he moved to Eugene OR. And even more valuable, a price list. This is the period where Bob's lack of record keeping had left a big gap in his knowledge base. The information contained within the catalog has really helped in filling in some of those gaps.

A couple of interesting notes to share:

1) The knife featured on the cover of the catalog was the Chinese Non-Folder, a  Small Utility fixed blade that can be seen here (top picture, second from bottom):  http://100lums.blogspot.com/2009/09/utility-blades.html

Mine is not the one on the cover of the catalog in that mine has a small choil to mark the end of the edge, and for easier resharpening. But it would have cost me a mere $135 if I had bought one back then.

This just confirms that Bob has been making the Chinese Knife design from the very start of his career, and while it's still based on the Shi-Lin Knife, the current versions we know is the end product of many years of evolution.

2) Bob had a model of the Tanto in the catalog, but did not call it a Tanto. His name for it was the Samurai Knife. No price was given unfortunately. But it did lack Bob's signature Hamagiri tip.

3) Bob prefer steel of choice in 1980 was 154CM. And all his fixed blades came with Tapered Tangs.

4) Bob's signature Lum chop is very prominently displayed on the cover. Which means Bob probably had the logo in mind at this time, but it just took him a few years to move away from the LUM stamp to the etched Chop Logo.

Price for the item $7.00.
Shipping, $1.50.
Value of information contained: priceless.

Spyderco Sprint Run Lum Tanto FB

Spyderco will be releasing a Sprint Run of the Lum Tanto Fixed Blade this year. New will be Maroon handles and a small "Spydie" hole in the blade near the tang.

Lums For 2012

A belated Happy New Year, and Gong Xi Fa Cai to everyone.

Going into 2012, I'm happy to see Spyderco continuing to offer two versions of the Chinese Folders as part of their Ethnic Series. The C65CF, Medium Chinese Folder in Glass Fiber, and the C143G, the Large Chinese Folder in Black G10.

Benchmade is also continuing to offer the two Dejavoo models. 741 and 746.

And missing from the reporting front was the special run of the Spyderco Medium Chinese Folder with Pink Amalite handles. Perfect for the ladies.

Recent Ebay Stag Lum: Results

Very surprised it sold for only $1200 after being relisted again. That is a very good price for a Deluxe Stag Tanto. Bob's table price for something like it would be in the $800 to $850 range.

Recent Deluxe Stag Tanto on Ebay

There was a Small Deluxe Tanto with Stag handle scales and steel bolster listed on Ebay recently. It was listed at $1500 with a BIN price of $2250. Unfortunately, it did not sell. The seller has re-listed it at a lower bid of $1300 and a BIN price of $1900. Hopefully someone would be able to score a great piece of Bob's work.