Dynamite Knife

supratentorial

supratentorial

Joined
Dec 19, 2006
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Here's a neat vintage dynamite knife that I bought recently. It's just under 5" long and 1/4" thick. A C4 spike serves as one handle for the pliers. A 2 and 1/3" blade is housed in the other handle. It's marked "explosifs luxite" on one side and "Luxembourg-Kockelscheuer" on the other. According to Wikipedia:
Kockelscheuer is a small town in the commune of Roeser, in southern Luxembourg. As of 2001, the town has a population of 261. The Fortis Championships Luxembourg are held at the Kockelscheuer Sport Centre, just to the north of the town.
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Levine's Guide to Knives and their Values 4th Ed has a section on "Dynamite Knives" on page 294.

explosifs.jpg
 
"...You wouldn't want to slip and get a pinch from the wire strippers though..."
- Gareth UK

V haf vaze to make U talk...
 
The wire stripper is recessed on both sides and located close to the pivot of the pliers so it's not likely to cause a pinch... especially since it probably won't leave the display case very often. ;) But thinking critically of the design, the handle with the spike is rather short and one would need to be careful of the sharp point when using the pliers. The screwdriver handle on the Leatherman Skeletool is also a trouble maker but it's not nearly as sharp as the spike on this vintage dynamite tool. I wonder if that's why Leatherman changed their design of the Leatherman Freestyle -- omitting the combo flat/Phillips screwdriver.
 
Here's a photo of the pre-production Leatherman Freestyle (it took me a while to locate the photo on my hard drive). The thing-a-ma-bob on the end of the handle is the combo flat/Phillips driver but it looks sorta like a C-4 spike... maybe Leatherman could put a cap crimper on the pliers and then market it as an EOD tool.

FREESTYLE_FANNED.jpg
 
supratentorial said:
The screwdriver handle on the Leatherman Skeletool is also a trouble maker but it's not nearly as sharp as the spike on this vintage dynamite tool. I wonder if that's why Leatherman changed their design of the Leatherman Freestyle -- omitting the combo flat/Phillips screwdriver.
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I don't mind the omissions on the production version of the Freestyle (and Freestyle CX). I'm not an EOD tech, but I think it would be cool if they turned the pre-production Freestyle into an EOD tool (instead of scrapping the design). It doesn't look like they'd need to make many changes to the design-- sharpen the spike on the handle and add a crimper to the pliers. ...or maybe having a sharp point on the handle is something Leatherman wanted to avoid. Dunno.
 
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