Puma Auto Messer 6390

Battey

Battey

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Dec 20, 2020
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Just picked this up with Jaracanda scales. I dated it to 1985 with its number on the bolster.
Does anyone know anything about this model?
I have seen lots of White Hunters but not this one before.
Any information would be helpful
Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Battey said:
Thanks for the link unfortunately its nearly all in German..
Click to expand...

A few years after the introduction of the "white hunter" with the typical staghorn handle scales, Puma then made the White Hunter with wooden handles for a short time. At the same time, the “car” model came along. on the market. It got the Puma number 6390 and apart from the label on the blade, the auto knife was no different from the tried and tested White Hunter.

The real idea of the car knife at the time was that it should serve as a universal knife for motorists on the move , and that is why special car holders were offered for the knife. These brackets were first made of wood and later made of plastic. The wooden sheaths were coated with a kind of felt and on the underside there is a foam against vibrations.

Incidentally, the blade of the WH and the Auto was made of non-stainless steel at the beginning of the era (PUMASTER STEEL / CARBON STEEL). In response to popular requests from customers, the blade was then given a thin, rust-proof chrome plating. A few years later (around 1980) the easy-to-forge stainless steel was used Grade 4110 (US designation 440 A) with a hardness of 57 to 58 Rockwell. This made the blade largely corrosion-proof.

Finally, one of the customers also included the Bundeswehr, which sold the knife (first order in 1967) primarily for pilots and other flying personnel than survival knives (Kappmesser) ordered in the event of a kill. Some copies (among collectors' circles one speaks of 200–250 pieces) had an etching on the ricasso "BUND". All car knives originally etched by Puma with "BUND" were made in 1979 without exception (data code 24972). Car knives with blade etchings such as "Jagdgeschwader Richthofen", "Geschwader Mölders", "Operation Feuerzauber", "GSG 9" or Knives with a "BUND" etching and a different data code like 24972 have never been made by Puma orignal!

The knives are original Puma car knives, but the etchings were applied afterwards and thus these pieces are without any collector's value!



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That's the bulk of the entry in English.

In my experience, the Auto Messers aren't all that rare, but finding them with the car mount or the folding car kit is.
 
Thanks for that helpful information, the blade shape seems impractical and I am going to sell it.
 
This is a free translation from the manual, about the blade shape:

“The tip is strong enough to open cans and bottle crowns.

In the front, the knife is wide and heavy, with a flat “hammer surface”: for nailing, building tents, cutting grass sods, for self defense, to cut out snow underneath fenders, roughen street ice when starting a car, etc.

The long, bellied edge is hair-splitting sharp, to cut anything during a camp meal.

The other side has a short and rough “hatchet-edge”: to cut twigs, split fire-wood, cut bones, etc.
...
Small teeth are at the end of the edge to cut tomatoes, sausage skin, etc.”

Cheers,

Roland.
 
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Good info titt. Never could get a straight answer on the carbon steel used on early Puma knives. Seemed like a secret. My old Skinner from 1966 says Pumaster Steel on blade. Boy Puma knives have had some changes in production!
 
I remember when Puma first introduced those knives, wasn't impressed then or now. The design seems impractical, trying to integrate a knife/hammer/saw/opener. Puma's folders are another matter. A game warden friend in Bella Coola had a beautiful stag-handled Puma folder his wife had bought him in Victoria for $5 (seems she and the sales clerk both agreed it couldn't be worth the $50 on the price tag and had been mislabeled). He damaged it by pounding the blade through a spruce root when trying to build a fire after his boat capsized on a coastal river, spilling him and his crew. Puma repaired the knife but returned it with a strict admonition, saying that it was not designed for pounding through spruce roots.
 
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So it's basically a white hunter without the
special car sheath? I know a lot of people are crazy about the white hunter. They say the
F&F, the steel and heat treatment are superb altough there are better steels now a days. As a hunting knife it seems to have quit a following, due to the fact that you can " chop" thrue bony parts with the blade shape.
 
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