Jim,
Your friend's knife is a beauty! Thanks for posting it. (Yours too, Bill). Cracks in ivory don't bother me at all. Here is a 50's 3-7 that had more than it's share, but the functional integrity of the handle seems not to be compromised at all. It has pretty much every option offered by the shop at the time: Double Ni-Ag hilt, Ivory handle with finger grooves and name etched (To a Korean War vet). Sorry for the bad pics:
Notwithstanding, there are ivory handles that aren't funny (Cracking up). Here a 60's 3-7 that missed Murphy's gaze:
This was the seller's pic for that same knife on ebay. You can see why I picked it up on the cheap:
This is one that I have been dogging for years, It's a circa 1948 3-7 with perfect ivory handle. Hopefully some day (Mike Webb gets the Model 4):
I bought this 3-5 when the shop was still making them. The butt is solid nickel-silver and together with the ivory, it's one of the heaviest 3's I own:
Before I collected just Model 3's, I collected a bit of everything. Here are 50's Model's 1, 2, 3 & 4 all with ivory handles and all with a double hilt! The handles on the Model 1 & Model 2 are flawless. The 1, 2 & 4 are all dead mint:
Best,