Unusual Knife

C

CBurgett

Joined
Jun 29, 2021
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174
A friend brought an interesting knife that I’ve never seen before.IMG_0187.jpegIMG_0188.jpeg
I meant to get a better picture of the maker’s mark but can anyone tell me anything about these? Seemed like a really interesting piece so I figured I’d see what I could find out about it for him.
 
There are a few different knives like that. One is a grape harvesting knife (that one looks Italian to me). They are also used for various other gardening/farming activities involving vegetation (pruning, etc). Look the blade over really carefully for a country of origin stamp, sometimes they can be really small or faint.

And then there is the "Saca Tripas" (a few pictured below), a Mexican agricultural knife that was also often used as a fighting knife. "Saca Tripas" means -to disembowel. Fun times in old Mexico 😁 .

But the one you pictured is purely for agricultural use like jfk1110 said. I included the Saca Tripas because it's similar, and because it has a colorful history :) .

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Thank you both for sharing! I was thinking it was used for gardening of some variety lol. Organ harvesting was not originally on my bingo card, but I could see the application .🤣
 
Looking around the internet I see that identical ones were made in Italy for at least two different companies, Whitby (the UK) and Hoffritz (USA), and marked as such. I read that the Whitby ones were made by Mauro Mario in Maniago (Italy). Mauro Mario is also famous for making switchblades. It wouldn't surprise me if MM made all of the ones like it.

I also saw identical ones without any identifiable markings.

They are frequently described as "bill hook" just like Maximumbob referenced.
 
Maximumbob54 said:
Would the spring bar on it also suggest Italian decent? I don't know how often that is used by anyone else.
Click to expand...

If you're referring to the lever connected to the lock bar (typically referred to as a "fulcrum release"), I can only remember seeing those on Italian and Spanish made knives, as well as some reproductions here in the US.

But I believe the use of a long spring-type back lock, pinned through the handle, has also been used in other countries.

The main reason I believe the knife CBurgett posted is Italian is because I've seen others just like it marked "Italy" or "Made in Italy".
 
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There is a marking at the bottom of the blade. I will have to get a close up of it the next time he has it with him.
 
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