Trying to identify and old knife

L

LakeCo

Joined
Nov 30, 2022
Messages
26
I've got this old knife and curious if anyone recognizes it and can confirm or deny my theory about it. Blade is 4.25" carbon steel and OAL of about 9.5". It looks like the sort of knife that would have been used as a murder weapon in a pool hall on the bad side of town in the 50s'. It is stamped GCCO 11129 Japan. I read about Gutmann Cutlery Co of NY that would use this stamp. They imported knives from Germany, Italy and Japan, often switchblades. Perhaps this was a knife they imported? Maybe the police are still looking for this one :)

https://imgur.com/a/PG98ThO
 
Tsujigiri said:
It looks like a Mercator, at least heavily based on one? Or the Douk Douk.
Click to expand...
Tks Tsujigirl! It sure has the pattern of a Mercator. With that, I did some further checking. Found something called a "OMOR BLACK CAT/PANTHER MERCATOR." Maybe OMOR is the Japanese company that manufactured some for GCCO?


And there is this...


​

 
Last edited:
According to some, OMOR is ROMO spelled backwards. ROMO is short for Rosenbaum and Mogal, two US importers of knives.

I can't say for sure if OMOR is ROMO spelled backwards, it seems strange that a company would want their name to be spelled backwards, but I haven't seen anything definitive either way.

I saw another knife similar to yours, blade, black handle, "GCCO Japan" tang stamp, on ebay (below).

NjdGC89.jpg


And here's a similar one described as made in Seki, Japan by Yasuo Imai for CI (Compass Industries). I'm also reading that Yasuo Imai made knives for OMOR.

KIpLjpi.jpg
 
Last edited:
Hmmm interesting, so there might be a connection between the German company and the Japanese factories? There was a time when there could have been a cost advantage to outsourcing there and capitalizing on people's familiarity with that knife design, and the Mercator's construction is similar enough to the Japanese Higonokami that it would have been easy for them to do. I've read that the Mercator, Douk-Douk, and Opinel are wildly popular in other parts of the world, even though we don't hear about them as much in the US.
 
killgar said:
According to some, OMOR is ROMO spelled backwards. ROMO is short for Rosenbaum and Mogal, two US importers of knives.

I can't say for sure if OMOR is ROMO spelled backwards, it seems strange that a company would want their name to be spelled backwards, but I haven't seen anything definitive either way.

I saw another knife similar to yours, blade, black handle, "GCCO Japan" tang stamp, on ebay (below).

NjdGC89.jpg


And here's a similar one described as made in Seki, Japan by Yasuo Imai for CI (Compass Industries). I'm also reading that Yasuo Imai made knives for OMOR.

KIpLjpi.jpg
Click to expand...
Tks Kilgar. Does seem possible that Yasuo Imai made a knife that was a Mercator knock off and sold them to importers such as ROMO and in this case, GC CO. The knife on Ebay mentions wobble when open. Mine sure has that. Also noticed the top two pins on mine are different than the others as if someone attempted to tighten it up but missed. There is a very faint 11129 which matches the blade just below the cat.

Tks Tsujigirl... that makes sense.
 
Last edited:
Early 70's -, a lot of the past importers of German knives moved some of their production to Japan to save costs. Sometimes they'd run two lines, the German imports, and then the Japanese models in a similar style for the budget minded customers. The price break was 40%-50% between the two usually. GCCo's rival and occasional collaborator PIC (Precise International Corp) used to do that move a lot.

Sometimes it lead to interesting things. For instance, the Japanese versions of these Cat or Panther knives as they were known, came in both chip and spear points. I don't believe Mercator ever offered a clip point. Also, you'll see odd sizes, mini, smaller, regular, and XL versions of the Japanese models sometimes. The XL was similar in size to the 007 knives that were popular at the time, and into the 80's. I'd like to find a good XL version one day, they were neat, very slim, long, and decently wide.
 
tltt said:
Early 70's -, a lot of the past importers of German knives moved some of their production to Japan to save costs. Sometimes they'd run two lines, the German imports, and then the Japanese models in a similar style for the budget minded customers. The price break was 40%-50% between the two usually. GCCo's rival and occasional collaborator PIC (Precise International Corp) used to do that move a lot.

Sometimes it lead to interesting things. For instance, the Japanese versions of these Cat or Panther knives as they were known, came in both chip and spear points. I don't believe Mercator ever offered a clip point. Also, you'll see odd sizes, mini, smaller, regular, and XL versions of the Japanese models sometimes. The XL was similar in size to the 007 knives that were popular at the time, and into the 80's. I'd like to find a good XL version one day, they were neat, very slim, long, and decently wide.
Click to expand...
Tks Tltt. Do you have a handle on what the numbering system was about? Mine has 11129. The similar knife on Ebay has 11156.
 
killgar said:
According to some, OMOR is ROMO spelled backwards. ROMO is short for Rosenbaum and Mogal, two US importers of knives.

I can't say for sure if OMOR is ROMO spelled backwards, it seems strange that a company would want their name to be spelled backwards, but I haven't seen anything definitive either way.

I saw another knife similar to yours, blade, black handle, "GCCO Japan" tang stamp, on ebay (below).

NjdGC89.jpg


And here's a similar one described as made in Seki, Japan by Yasuo Imai for CI (Compass Industries). I'm also reading that Yasuo Imai made knives for OMOR.

KIpLjpi.jpg
Click to expand...
Kilgar, that is a great site. On there, I found this... https://epragueknives.com/vintage-y...e-523-seki-japan-4-25-stainless-folding-knife
 
LakeCo said:
Tks Tltt. Do you have a handle on what the numbering system was about? Mine has 11129. The similar knife on Ebay has 11156.
Click to expand...

No, it's one of those things that might mean something or it might mean nothing. If I had to guess, maybe a model number. But it could also just be a number picked at random to fill in the space where the K99K would be on the original German knife.
 
tltt said:
No, it's one of those things that might mean something or it might mean nothing. If I had to guess, maybe a model number. But it could also just be a number picked at random to fill in the space where the K99K would be on the original German knife.
Click to expand...
Tks Tltt. The being arbitrary makes sense. Comparing mine to the image of the black handled one on Ebay, they are the same as far as I can tell except for the bail.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top