Levine's Guide to Knives and Their Values. 2nd Ed [Paperback]

Bernard Levine (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: DBI Books; 2nd edition (1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873490428
• ISBN-13: 978-0873490429
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,229,656 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Empty promises, November 19, 2001

By 

Ursula Wiedemann "Mike Wiedemann" (Titusville, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Levine's Guide to Knives & Their Values (Paperback)

I am a long time knife collector and was eager to get the 5th edition of "Levine's Guide Knives and Their Values". It's been nearly 5 years since the last edition was released and much has transpired in the world of knife collecting in that time. I ordered one as soon as I could. Upon its arrival I was really disappointed. Other than the addition of a couple of articles at the end of the existing text the book was almost the same as the 4th edition and the changes made were not welcome. The new publishers had deleted all of the information that is used to value a knife. While a number of books cover specific brands of knives "Levine's Guide Knives and Their Values" was the only one where a collector could determine an approximate value for nearly any knife he might come across. The publishers had decided that the information on the quality of manufacture and all the tables that were so useful to collectors were not needed and deleted them and replaced them with a few pictures to fill the empty spaces on the pages. The publishers have managed to destroy what had been a great resource for collectors. Save your money, donÕt buy the 5th edition, the added material is not worth the price. Find a copy of the 4th edition and treat it kindly. BTW, Bernard Levine was not involved in the preparation of the 5th edition.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A big disappointment, April 15, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Levine's Guide to Knives & Their Values (Paperback)

First of all, Bernard Levine WAS NOT involved with this book even though it contains his name. Krause publication owns the rights to Levine and due to problems between the author and publisher Levine has publically stated that he does not support this book--thus, the unassuming buyer believes Levine wrote this book. This is simply not true. This is a huge warning sign. No one can write a book on Knives and their values like Levine. This book was edited by Bud Lang, the former editor of Knives Illustrated and though I highly respect Bud and miss him at the helm of KI, this wasn't his baby and it shows.

In my opinion there is not enough new material here to warrant a new book. Yeah, there are a few new pictures and an interesting article on William Scagel but there are some very confusing values in the book and according to Levine they were inflated and do not reflect the current market value of many collectable knives.

Levine wrote a very interesting editorial regarding "his" book that was published in Knife World last summer. ...

You be the judge.

Since Bernard Levine does not endorse this book I would buy the 4th edition from Amazon.com instead if you can.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Wheres the Beef?, May 6, 2002

By 

Jim Anderson (Southern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Levine's Guide to Knives & Their Values (Paperback)

Maybe calling this the "stripped down for racing version" would have been more appropriate. It certainly isn't the family station wagon, full of Knife Information, that it was before Krause slashed all the pertinent data out of it. The 5th Edition is a classic case of creating a new version just for the sake of sales. That may not have been so bad, except they removed much important data which knife collectors use to identify and collect knives. Then, to make it appear they had changed it, they added superflous "bloatware," in an effort to make it look different. If Levine's 4th Edition didn't exist, it would be better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but you can still get the 4th Edition so that option can be avoided. One of the major facinations of old knives is their level of handmade quality. The historical record tells us that newer is not always better.