Help identifying an old slip joint

Signalprick

Signalprick

Jason Ritchie
Gold Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2009
Messages
3,260
Hello,

My neighbor had this little gem. He's told it was was his great grandfather's. Honestly it is the coolest "really old" knife I've ever seen. Super tight and very well built. Strong pull and zero play. It has a chisel and sabre ground blade. Amazing wood covers. Ebony maybe? Anyone have a clue? @waynorth ? Thanks guys!

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Is that a Japanese Character as the tang stamp? If you can look at it with a magnifying glass.
 
Can't read that tang-stamp, but it would be useful to know what it is.

Looking at the knife, my initial idea is that it's European, German or something from former Austria-Hungary pre 1918 or from the countries that emerged from it- the then Czechoslovakia or Hungary?

Coco / Rosewood not Ebony.

Interesting solid style:thumbsup:
 
He said he thinks it was carried during WWI. His grandfather is/was American. European would make sense for sure. Here's the mark blown up if that helps?
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It reminds me of the construction you would see out of India in that time frame.
 
Nice piece of family history! I can’t help with the stamp, but I agree with Will that the covers are most likely rosewood or cocobolo with a possibility of redwood.
 
I have googled "vintage Hungarian, German, French, Indian, Packistani, folding knife" no dice. I just texted the guy to have him try and get me a little more history on when, where his grandfather served.
 
I'm leaning towards Turkish. The mark looks to me like a Persian axe, a letter, and the crescent moon. WWI was a big deal for the Turks (Ottoman Empire). Have you considered moving this over to Bernard Levine's forum?
 
I'm doing some 8nitial searches for vintage Turkish folding knife and not seeing anything even close in design. I'm not familiar with Bernard Levines forum? Sorry I'm pretty narrowly focused on BF. I really only hang out here, the CRK forum and the knifemaker forums.
 
I saw one Turkish knife image that had the sabre chisel grind. But I'm convinced; I don't need evidence.

If you did want to try Levine's, I think you would ask a moderator to move this thread, rather than starting another one.
 
glennbad said:
It reminds me of the construction you would see out of India in that time frame.
Click to expand...

You may be on to something there. If you Google “antique pocket knife made in India”, you will see a few examples with the crescent moon symbol on them. They are a different shape, but at least indicate some sort of Indian cutlery industry. Also, see the crescent symbol on this Indian brass cup which my grandparents brought back from India sometime around WWII:
zFUvSAF.jpg

Don’t forget India has a very large Muslim population, and before partition I suppose probably even larger, so the crescent symbol would not have been uncommon, I don’t think. Anyway, pure supposition on my part but fun to think about.
 
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