Found a old knife at yard sale marked 95%

[Jayjohn]

Hello Treasure Net world!
I need your help please.
I bought this at a yard sale today.
And noticed the marking.
I looked it up, but found too many different answers. Please help.
Thanks

 

[BagLady]

Hi. Welcome to Tnet. I think you have a food serving tool/piece. I don't know why it says 95%, but hopefully that means its 95% silver..?
Someone else is bound to know.

 

[BosnMate]

My guess is the handle is 95% silver.

 

[Gold Maven]

does that butt cap unscrew?

 

[Jayjohn]

No, it doesn't. It's solid. I weighed it, it came to 98.5g's

 

[ARC]

Cheese / melon knife

 

[BosnMate]

probably hollow and full of sand for weight. Not being funny, I've actually seen sterling with weighted handles.

 

[DFX DAVE in M.D.]

It looks like it could be used as a good Letter Opener.

 

[beerguy]

I have never seen a melon knife.

Nice find.

 

[galenrog]

If the handle is .950 silver and .050 copper, the color is about right.

A knife of this size with a weighted silver handle should run about 100 grams. If solid .950 silver, it would be around twice that weight, if not more.

 

[against the wind]

Cool find,, what did you pay for it?

 

[Rodbuster209]

Could be pewter, I believe I've seen it marked that way before. Good luck!

 

[galenrog]

I had not thought of that. If the pewter is 95% tin, any percentage marking would be 95%. In addition, if 5% copper, the color in the image would be consistent. Handle still filled.

 

[diggummup]

95% is a newer pewter mark. By newer I mean mid century and up.

 

[jerseyben]

Does not look like pewter. Does it "smell" like silver?

 

[SusanMN]

You could do the tin foil, baking soda, boiling water test. If it starts to smell sort of like rotten eggs, it's silver.

 

[RustyGold]

The blade looks plated IMHO.

 

[jerseyben]

The blade looks plated IMHO.

The blade is almost never silver. A knife with a silver handle will almost always have a steel blade.