Recently picked a up a bag of Knives and had this Clyde Fischer inside. Has the Y.O. stamp and from all I can find, was made for the skinners to use on the Y.O. Knife feels good in the hand and has a great edge which brings me to the questions that I hope the forum would be able to shed some light.

1. Does anyone have an idea of the value? Cant locate anything solid on this specific knife.
2. Should I clean up the blade and polish the brass or leave it in the current condition?
3. Will polishing diminish the value?
4. Actually considering making it my primary skinning knife. Is this knife something I would want to use or hold on to as a keepsake?
5. When would this knife have been made?

Thank you for all of your input.

1. Does anyone have an idea of the value? Cant locate anything solid on this specific knife.
Answer: Hard to tell; you can find some of Clyde knives from $300 to $400.00 just a guess bro.
2. Should I clean up the blade and polish the brass or leave it in the current condition?
Answer:I would clean it up, only way to keep a knife. Just make sure not to remove any material.
3. Will polishing diminish the value?
Answer, Not at all.
4. Actually considering making it my primary skinning knife. Is this knife something I would want to use or hold on to as a keepsake?
Answer: Just depends if his knives become collector knives, it's your call, if you take good care of it, a knife is made to be used. It's already been used extensively, I doubt you are going to diminish the value.
5. When would this knife have been made?
Answer: Hard to determine that, Clyde started making knives in the 60's, and pass away in 2001.

Google Arizona Custom Knives and enter his name to see what they are going for.

Great find, I like it. Forrest

Thank you for the replies. Decided to stop thinking too much about it and use the knife for what it was made for.

I think you made the right decision. I had an old Western Knife that was my Grandfather's knife. It was half bent, the leather in the handle was dried and loose...the pommel was beat to hell...it was just in terrible shape, and the sheath was in terrible shape too. My Dad gave the knife to one of our friends up in OK who likes to restore knives and make sheaths. The knife came back to me in almost new condition, and was wrapped in the most gorgeous sheath I could have imagined! I was very thankful and blessed that he took the time to do that for me. Two or three years later, I was hunting with him again, and he asked to see that knife. I told him that it was so beautiful that I never used it. He got all bent out of shape and told me that a knife was meant to be used, and he would not have put that much work into it if he knew that I would stop using it. LOL. I use it more often now.

Cool looking profile......I like the patina as well.....I would get rid of the rust, polish the brass and sharpen it up.......and put it to use.....I have many custom knives and use them all periodically......it's not hard to keep them looking great, the main rule is don't use it for tasks it was not intended for....

Clyde was an old maker from Victoria texas. That blade is probably L6 so it should hold a really good edge. He only used handle materials from Texas. He was an early guild member and Bob Loveless was scared to death of him. We were at a show in Orlando were Bob was cussing in front of women and Clyde said he was going to take him outside. Bob shut right up. By all means use it. I have 4 or 5 of his and they are very good users. I have 2 he made after his stroke, they are not as clean work but they still hold a good edge.

Not high in value though often old makers will buy his work, just because. I have 2 of the YO marked ones. He also used to do a large high hunting Bowie that on its sheath had a sheath for one of the little NAA 22's.

Thanks for the stories, Jerry.