So again after more investigation it turns out our vip australium will not work on any stock weapons... Apparently its a valve issue and is not repairable. I was told that it should work on any dropped weapon or stock strange equivalent.
I hope this clears things up for people a little more...
Yup, once again, any item that is available as an Australium, it takes a little extra effort to get the ones working by getting your hands on a strange weapon. If the Knife wasn't australium before, it will be if you get your hands on a strange one.
The solution to it all is just to acquire a strange over any stock items. Dropped items also will authenticate, but any defaults will not work.