Mercator - minimalism pure

Humppa said:
Hi Fausto...

what do you think, is my Ankermesser telling you? I´m guessing, but you need one, right :confused: ? Thats pretty broad knife... really traditional german slippie...

Kind regards
Andi
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Thanks for helping me with German Andi...now I know what the knife is telling me... ;)

Fausto
:cool:
 
Well,

my Mercator has no blade-wobble at all. Everything is strong, no blade play, blade fits middly in the handle. Accurate construction, so to say :)

Maybe the guys in China can´t take such accurate work, but I don´t know ;)

Kind regards
Andi
 
Here's an older Mercator K55 with some additional gear built in...

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Hey Andi, I see your Mercator has red on the bottom of the handle which mine hasn't. Does that mean I have the stainless one?
Mine is off centred and has a good amount of up and down play (but hey, it's a back lock after all:()
Side to side it's rock solid and it's stamped Solingen.
Cost me about eur 28 incl shipping.

I have to buy me a Ankermesser some day.

My dad carried one of these along with his beloved Herder.
 
Hi spydutch!

Yes, my Mercator has a red layer in the handle. But what that means, I don´t know. You could be right, that this is the carbonsteel-version. I haven´t any stainless yet.

I have the ordinary slipjoint without a backlock mechanism or something like that. But the cost of 28 € seem to be a bit high, for me. Mine was much cheaper to get.

The Ankermesser is a great knife. For sure, you´ll need one. Just like anyone here in the trad forum :D

Kind regards
Andi
 
It might mean its the smaller version. There are two different sizes. I don't know the figures but you can find them online. When I ordered a small it had that red insert.
 
I have a slip joint Mercator with red insert and it's stainless. I don't think the colour of the insert relates to anything, but I may be wrong.

Cost was 15 euros online, ordered Sunday arrived today direct from OTTER-Messer, who also included an extra small knife as a gift which was very nice of them :thumbup:.
 
Oh, I too like the look of that Ankermesser. (maybe it should get a thread of it's own?) Looking for one online, I also found a Therias & L 'Econome Sailers knife that looks very similar and equally cool.
 
Ok, if you guys want to, I´ll make an own thread for the Ankermesser. When I find time for this.

Kind regards
 
I have a bunch of the locking ones and a few of the smaller non locking ones. They are all well made work knives. The older ones had the red inserts in the bottom and newer ones have black. The material used for those have changed over the years as it is now plastic while the older ones had an almost "rubber" material. You can find the larger locking ones for $20 or less all day in the US and the smaller non locking ones for $14 to17. I never got one that was not tight, but did get a few that had a slight "tilt " downwards in the blade when locked open. I have one I bought in the 1970s with a up swept clip blade and I did not like that design back then, but I wish I had more of that type now as it is a very useful blade design! There were copies of these in the 70s from Japan made in the real size and one size bigger. They were not well made at all. The China ones are news to me and I have not seen them. I laugh at the ones on bay that are beat to death and guys pay top dollar for them...I don't see why as they have not really changed over the years much at all!
 
Anyone know the history of the Len Company of Brooklyn NY? In the 60 and 70s they were the ones always selling the Mercators in the back of gun magazines for something like a $1.98. I have at least one of their old catalogs full of the cheap Ghetto Special/Mall Ninja knives of the period. Also carried Puma, Schrade, Mora, Boker, Case, Swiss Army etc.
 
When I was a kid the Mercator "Cat" knives were the knife that all us youngsters wanted (to be like the cool older kids). It was like a rite of passage. Great memories associated with the brand.
 
Sidehill Gouger said:
Anyone know the history of the Len Company of Brooklyn NY? In the 60 and 70s they were the ones always selling the Mercators in the back of gun magazines for something like a $1.98. I have at least one of their old catalogs full of the cheap Ghetto Special/Mall Ninja knives of the period. Also carried Puma, Schrade, Mora, Boker, Case, Swiss Army etc.
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You can see their old Field & Stream classifieds by looking at this link.
 
Len company was in Brooklyn and Westbury Sales in Nassau County ( both on Long Island NY). They both sold many different types of knives and other weapon like items....Len Closed before Westbury Sales but I don't know the exact dates....Yes in the 60s and 70s the K55's where they knife to own for sure!!!! the 007 wood handle folders were second in line in NYC....
 
tom19176 said:
Len company was in Brooklyn and Westbury Sales in Nassau County ( both on Long Island NY). They both sold many different types of knives and other weapon like items....Len Closed before Westbury Sales but I don't know the exact dates....Yes in the 60s and 70s the K55's where they knife to own for sure!!!! the 007 wood handle folders were second in line in NYC....
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Tom, those of us from Brooklyn & Queens while accepting the geographic reality of physically being part of Long Island reject the notion of being citizens of Long Island as that represented some exotic foreign locale to us as kids. (Much the way we Ranger fans will be looking with malice at the Islander fans when they drop the puck tonight. ;))

Back on topic: I wish I still had some of those great old knives that were fixtures of those years from the late 50's through 60's. I do have one or more of the knockoff stilettos somewhere though. :thumbup:
 
I grew up in Queens and did not realise I was on the same island as Nassau and Suffolk, in fact it on an island until I was in my 20s!!! You always thought of yourself as part of NYC and it never seemed you were on an island.......I kept alot of the stuff I bought in the 60s and 70s and I ran into a guy in Nassau a few years back that bought out alot of the Westbury Sales stuff, and I got a bunch of NOS from him....The new stuff of today is better made but the memories can't be beat......
 
It was my favorite knife when I was a kid too. I thought it was cool that I could carry it concealed in my sock. It was also the knife I went to when something needed to be cut. I didn't know about steel or sharpening back then. I just knew it was my sharpest knife.

I have two of the older K55's now. It does have the flaw I hate in knives. The tip hits that red insert to stop the blade closing instead of the kick. I love the carbon steel though. Has anyone rockwell tested it? They are saying a Douk Douk is 50-53 RC over in the Douk Douk thread. I'd love to see how the Mercator compares.

I guess I have one good Mercator left actually. I purposely abused one to failure at work, using it hard. This included hitting it with a plastic deadfall hammer to cut plastic strips on a regular basis. It lasted a couple years surprisingly till I bent the backspring. I've had it apart and bent the spring back and may have it working again yet if I can find pins the right size.
 
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My wife had me pick a few knives to get from Santa (cheaper ones). It was this or the douk douk. I went with the dd, but someday...both really cool, SLIM knives. Carbon steel. My douk douk has rock solid half-stop. Ahh, so many knives..... :) BTW, the one with the added accessories is neat. Never seen one.
 
I like the Mercators, I THINK the steel is a fairly good 1095.

It does have that flaw where the tip hits when it closes instead of the "kick" at the heel. On my Mercator(s) I have put a pin in the handle for the heel of the blade to hit.

In the pic you can see that the pin is uncomfortably close to the pin for the spring and you can see where I ground the bottom of the blade a bit where it hits. I was worried that this pin would not be sturdy enough in this folded steel handle but on the knife I "tested" to failure at work it is still nice and solid.


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I THINK the steel is a fairly good 1095.
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No. The steel is 1075, hardened to ~57HRC.

XC75 carbon steel used for Mercators knives

This non-stainless steel is widely used by European craftsmen cutlers for its qualities of hardness and relative ease of work in the traditional forge.

Composition :
C 0,75 Cr 0 Mn 0,55 Mo 0 Ni 0 Si 0,25 V 0 W 0
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