WW2 favored GI folding knives in occupied areas

transmaster

transmaster

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The Japanese Higonokami was a popular EDC folding knife with GI's in occupied Japan.

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I just learned that in occupied Germany the popular EDC folding knife was the German Mercator Black Cat.

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I have an example of the Japanese Higonokami, I have just ordered an Mercator Solingen Black Cat K55K.
 
Thanks for sharing. I didn't know that. I assume all knives were pretty popular with GIs in occupied parts of the world. Easy enough to put on the person and or in gear and pack out.
 
My grandfather usually favored small pocket knives as far as I know so while he stayed behind to serve on occupational duty after the war ( I only know because I have his occupational forces handbook) in I assume Germany, I'm not sure whether he would have gravitated towards the K55K or not.
I only knew him in his later years of course and the oldest knife of his that I have is from the 70's, so I don't know what his preferences would have been as a young man.
most young men tend to think large impressive eye catching blades are cool, so maybe he would have liked the decently sized Merc.
He was a practical man after all as most men of that generation were, so he might have carried any inexpensive readily available pocket knife he could get if he needed one regardless of usual preferences.
As a T5 /T4 who drove a tank I'm not sure he would have been issued a bayonet or combat knife that could influence his knife preferences, so there's just no telling.
 
Hickory n steel said:
My grandfather usually favored small pocket knives as far as I know so while he stayed behind to serve on occupational duty after the war ( I only know because I have his occupational forces handbook) in I assume Germany, I'm not sure whether he would have gravitated towards the K55K or not.
I only knew him in his later years of course and the oldest knife of his that I have is from the 70's, so I don't know what his preferences would have been as a young man.
most young men tend to think large impressive eye catching blades are cool, so maybe he would have liked the decently sized Merc.
He was a practical man after all as most men of that generation were, so he might have carried any inexpensive readily available pocket knife he could get if he needed one regardless of usual preferences.
As a T5 /T4 who drove a tank I'm not sure he would have been issued a bayonet or combat knife that could influence his knife preferences, so there's just no telling.
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The only reason why I knew about the Japanese Higonokami was totally worn out examples kicking around in tool boxes. All of my WW2 serving Uncles were in the Pacific theater except Uncle Ish (Ishmal) He was in the European theater. Because he was fluent in the German language he became a enterpenter at the Nuremberg trials after the war. What he witnessed at these trials so traumatized him he had serious trouble with what we now call PTSD. In his case anything that reminded him of this was discarded very early on.
 
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transmaster said:
The only reason why I knew about the Japanese Higonokami was totally worn out examples kicking around in tool boxes. All of my WW2 serving Uncles were in the Pacific theater except Uncle Ish (Ishmal) He was in the European theater. Because he was fluent in the German language he became a enterpenter at the Nuremberg trials after the war. What he witnessed at these trials so traumatized him he had serious trouble with what we now call PTSD. In his case anything that reminded him of this was discarded very early on.
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I only know a few stories from my grandfather's time in the war because there's little he would talk about.

We just barely learned this year that the reason he and his brother moved out here from Missouri is because shortly after returning home they saw their mother die in a stove explosion and didn't want to be reminded of it every day.
I have the cigar box worth of mementos he kept from his time in the war, but otherwise his uniform and everything else are gone and nobody remembers ever seeing and it's assumed he just left it at the family farm in Missouri when he moved.

Speaking of knives, I have to wonder how the GI's felt about the Higo and the Merc in practical terms.
The Higo is thicker behind the edge than they were probably used to in a pocket knife as well as being ground differently.
And the Merc had a locking mechanism which wasn't the most common thing back then.
And of course we can't forget the switchblades that were so popular with GI's stationed in Italy , those obviously had some cool novelty factor but I wonder what they thought of them as a cutting tool.
 
These are details that have largely disappeared with the passing of these Vets and no one thought to ask them about it, even if they would have talked about it. One thing I learned with my career at a VA hospital is generally the experience of GI occupiers was more agreeable in Japan than in Europe. The total destruction in Europe was far higher than it was in Japan. This is largely because we did not have to invade Japan. For me I learned about the Higonokami knives from Japan is I would find them in tool boxes and ask about them.
 
The Switchblades I handled that came back with GI's were very poorly made. Most had worn out springs and the blade which were also of a poor alloy and design just fell open.
 
transmaster said:
The Switchblades I handled that came back with GI's were very poorly made. Most had worn out springs and the blade which were also of a poor alloy and design just fell open.
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The poor alloy steel doesn’t surprise me, especially if these knives were made during or soon after the war. The occupied countries were in a state of total war and steel was a strategic resource.
 
I have the German Mercator Black Cat. This is without any doubt the best single blade folding blade knife I have never owned. It is just exactly the right size. An interesting detail if you look there are 2 versions, they are the same in every way except one has the Blackcat K55K logo, the other doesn’t. The former is the civilian retail model, the one without is the German army issue version.

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Plantman said:
These are now made by Otter in Solingen. They are high quality and reasonably priced with quite a few variants available. My favorite is the copper version.
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Yep!

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I have the carbon steel "small" brass mercator which does not lock, I like the knife but do wish it was smaller and a little less stiff to open.
 
If you go back several years on this forum, you can find quite a bit of discussion of these knives. Part of the lore holds that GIs took these knives from their Wehrmacht counterparts who no longer had use for them, and brought them back home, where they found favor with certain hoodlum gangs in the Bronx. As a result, more of the knives were imported, and could be found in corner stores where they sold for about a buck.
 
transmaster said:
I have the German Mercator Black Cat. This is without any doubt the best single blade folding blade knife I have never owned. It is just exactly the right size. An interesting detail if you look there are 2 versions, they are the same in every way except one has the Blackcat K55K logo, the other doesn’t. The former is the civilian retail model, the one without is the German army issue version.

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I too picked one of these up just recently after waiting for one to show up on the exchange for many years. I finally said the heck with it and just ordered one new. Glad I did. At work it's perfect. Light, unobtrusive and just right for dress pants pockets. It also cuts like the devil. Makes me wonder about some of the overbuilt tactical thingies I have purchased over the years.
 
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