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Item History is used to discover the Test Knowledge for both Pattern Items and Thread Items. If your character already KNOWS (no guessing allowed), then they already have the "Research" Knowledge. That is the case in my example where the Test Knowlege is "Who was the last wielder" and you knew the name of the person you recovered the item from. If your character doesn't KNOW the information for the "Research" Knowledge, they must uncover it. They can do this with Research rolls at a place like the Great Library, but it doesn't HAVE to be rolls. If, for example, you recovered it off a corpse from a local farmer, you could go to th village heads man, say "a young man died defending your village - he was golden haired, short, with a scar on his forehead." The headsman says "Ah, yes, Carl, he was always courageous in protecting his flock. He will be missed, but he lived up to his word - every head in this pasture survived the scorcher attack." You now know the last wielder was Carl, but you never had to make a roll.

Ah, sorry. Item History is the only way to reveal the Test Knowledge. Luckily, this is a service that is easy to buy in most cities and large towns.

I think this might be better left as part of an "Errata & Additional Information" free PDF. The whole Key Knowledge thing is a little cumbersome, and a single, well-written paragraph can probably clear it up. I am not great at being concise (can anyone tell??), but I'll take a stab at it:

Key Knowledges are facts and deeds about a magic item's pattern that an Adept must discover and fulfill in order to weave threads to the item. Item History is the only way the reveal Key Knowledges (see pg XXX for Item History tests). Each Key Knowledge has two parts - the Test Knowledge and the Research Knowledge. The Test Knowledge describes the information that must be discovered. For Thread Items, Test Knowledges are usually associated with the item itself or previous owners. For Pattern Items, Test Knowledges are usually associated with the True Pattern of the item, and possibly why the Patter Item is important to that True Pattern. The Research Knowledge is the information that fulfills the Test Knowledge. Although this information is named 'Research Knowledge', a Research test is not required to obtain the information. The information could be discovered before or during acquisition of the item (e.g., knowing the name of the fallen Namegiver off which the item was discovered because the Adept was sent to search for that Namegiver), investigation (e.g., the headsman of the local village may know critical information about a magic item found in their nearby sacred cave), or direct Research (e.g., visiting The Great Library of Throal and spending Dedicated Time to perform one or more Research tests). While Research tests are not required, the character must know the information; a player cannot guess (e.g., finding a Pattern Item in a particular Namegiver's room does not guarantee that the item is for the True Pattern of that Namegiver).

The Test Knowledge is the Question, isn't it? and the Research Knowledge is the Answer.