Does anyone know what this knife is?

T

Troysund

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Apr 12, 2022
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German made Okapi but unable to find anything else about it. All metal or steel handle, folding knife with decorative small metal things about 1 cm in length coming out of handle by where it folds.
Sorry no pic, not sure how to include one with my smartphone.
Thanks
 
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Troysund said:
German made Okapi but unable to find anything else about it. All metal or steel handle, folding knife with decorative small metal things about 1 cm in length coming out of handle by where it folds.
Sorry no pic, not sure how to include one with my smartphone.
Thanks
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Ruari said:
Upload a picture to a hosting site, then copy the picture URL which can be inserted using the little picture symbol above the text box when you are writing.
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Okapi moved from Germany to South Africa in the late 80's, so it's at least 35 years old. Other than that, I've got nothing, lol. They were typically lower-end, working knives though.

I've seen a few metal handled Okapis that were made in Germany, but never with a crossguard like that.
 
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Nice short synopsis of the Okapi brand name history on Wiki. As Fixall Fixall said, if it was made in Germany it was made before 1988.
en.wikipedia.org

Okapi (knife) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

But that particular knife looks to be vaguely patterned after another German knife, the Mercatur K55 Black Cat. Different German company which also (still) specializes in robust working knives. They would have been competitors.
L154S.jpg
 
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Similar, but not exact model was known as the #891 Rg in a 1940's catalog. It's based on French folding designs (Douk Douk made a very similar designs first 70 years of the 20th century). Okapi was very big into trade knife patterns, especially in Africa where the French had a foothold. So you've probably got a German maker copying a French pattern for sale aboard, and somewhat domestically.

Edit, here's the Cognet (makers of Douk Douk) Le Nirus the Opaki copies -

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Cognet also made similar under the Bundu name -

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