Not really sure where on BF to post a report. I do have photos but they are from the three knife museums, not the companies
as it would have been rude considering Mr Sakai and Mr Hattori spent time with me directly.
As for the idea that the lack of the "Seki Japan" markings may indicate a manufacture by a non-Seki firm, I doubt that for two
reasons. One is that the Seki Cutlery Association is a pretty tight knit group of family owned firms that have known each other for
a very long time. And they tend to treat other Japanese cutlery companies a bit as "outsiders". Secondly, even if that particular Desert Dagger were made outside of Seki, there's really no reason that should be normal. For example, there is acompany called Ido Edge located in Mino City north of Seki City, not a member of the Seki association obviously, who manufactures the Pendleton Hunter for
Cold Steel. They also use to make the now discontinued Peacekeeper daggers. They mark all their knives as "Made in Japan".
Fallkniven are the only knives that are not marked as to origin, most likely due to military contract sales. Since I have seen Taiwan SOG models that did not have "Taiwan" on it I assume that this is a similar case. The ricasso being so different on that one dagger though does beg the question of whether there are any other unusual characteristics not visible in the two photos.
