Can someone identify this antique Japanese knife?

[Pilsburythrowboy12]

Hey gang, after some light web searching I've come up empty on my efforts to identify this thing. The blade thickness is 1/16th", blade length is 4.5", overall length is 9.5" and the stamping of Japanese stainless steel gives me the impression it's made in Japan. Then again it could just be the steels origin and a different origin of assembly. The handle feels very light in the hand and doesn't have the distinct hardwood feel / weight and as proof, the knife floats in water. The pommel and beginning of the handle have bone plates as well. I have no idea how deep the tang runs either but it's pretty solid considering the amount of wood carving I've put it through since I picked it up. The sheath was in shambles, brittle, dried out, no stitching, etc, but after a couple days of tallow smearing and flaking off dead, dry layers and some stitching it's serviceable again. This was an interesting little piece I picked up over the summer at a yard sale for $1.00. It's pretty easy to sharpen and holds its edge surprisingly well even considering the Japanese steel stamping. Any ideas?



I can't make out the etching on the handle, can you?

[ron_m80]

Antique? Not really. $1, may have been about .25 cents too much for it. The knife was probably made in Japan to import to the US, for a company who contracted the knife out for manufacture.

Other than that it is a fishing knife with a descaler on the spine.

[scrteened porch]

I almost think it says "Wylder" above and something shorter below the long line of the triangle. Obviously a lot of imagination at work there, and I have very little psychic ability.

I have a Japanese folding pick/shovel with a triangle like that one, and a smaller triangle flipped and inset in the large triangle. It also has three tiny things stamped in the points of the larger triangle,probably five-petalled flowers. And it doesn't say "Wylder".

I'm sure Ron_m80 is right that it's a fishing knife. The large bouyant handle was probably its main selling point. It would probably be safe to call it vintage. I'm guessing, and it is a guess, 1960s or so, because I think I remember this sort of thing advertised in the margins of magazines.
It probably was cheaply made and cheap to buy, which doesn't make it a bad knife, as you know from using it. Our own Colonials and Imperials were never expensive enough to coddle, but an awful lot of them remain in usable condition.

Now it looks to me like three stars. I would expect a Japanese company with a three star logo to be called Mitsuboshi; three flowers, Mitsubana.

[DJD]

Handle looks like balsa wood. (The most floating'est wood) Tough for it's weight, but you can probably dent it with your fingernail.

DD

[bernard_levine]

Does it float?

In the sink?

That was the selling point on some of this style: "Floating Fish Knife."

The higher grade ones would float in mid air, if you left them there.

BRL...

[Rat Finkenstein]

where are the pictures?

I have a floating fish knife, would like to see if it was similar.

[scrteened porch]

where are the pictures?

I have a floating fish knife, would like to see if it was similar.

There were pictures. It looks like a Swedish barrel/sloyd knife, except for the fish scaler on the back of the blade. Blade as long as the handle, maybe 4" each?
It doesn't look like a little samurai sword, like this one of mine that says "floating fish knife" on it. OP's had a flat leather sheath.

[mtangent]

First time I ever cut myself was with one of those. About 1969.

[Rat Finkenstein]

There were pictures. It looks like a Swedish barrel/sloyd knife, except for the fish scaler on the back of the blade. Blade as long as the handle, maybe 4" each?
It doesn't look like a little samurai sword, like this one of mine that says "floating fish knife" on it. OP's had a flat leather sheath.

Mine is similar to yours. The blade is the same, but the handle is square edged and has printing on it. It appears to be a novelty knife.