Knives of Russia(early and later)

[Eustace]

The wood handled single blade was a gift from Georgi and it is a treasure to me.

Just one correction, Ray. This knife is Bulgarian and not Russian / USSR.
It is clear to me that for you the whole eastern bloc, behind the Iron Curtain at that time, was connected with the USSR. But Bulgaria was never a union republic of the Soviet socialist republics.
After the Second World War we were occupied for several years (after all, we were allies of Germany), but after 1950 in Bulgaria there were neither Soviet troops nor Soviet participation in governing the country.

[1967redrider]

Cool post and knives, Ray. I don't think I've ever seen any Russia/Soviet military issued knives, are there any out there?

Thank you, Sir. Now I have something for reference to be on the lookout for.

[Eustace]

Cool post and knives, Ray. I don't think I've ever seen any Russia/Soviet military issued knives, are there any out there?

Thank you, Sir. Now I have something for reference to be on the lookout for.

I can give you many links to sources of information, but everything is in Russian.
For example

http://zonwar.ru/xolodnoe/knife_survival/NAZ-8.html

[1967redrider]

Thanks again! My phone happens to translate, and I have a Russian bud who lives close by.

[knife7knut]

The wood handled single blade was a gift from Georgi and it is a treasure to me.

Just one correction, Ray. This knife is Bulgarian and not Russian / USSR.
It is clear to me that for you the whole eastern bloc, behind the Iron Curtain at that time, was connected with the USSR. But Bulgaria was never a union republic of the Soviet socialist republics.
After the Second World War we were occupied for several years (after all, we were allies of Germany), but after 1950 in Bulgaria there were neither Soviet troops nor Soviet participation in governing the country.

My humblest apologies my friend and thank you for the correction.

[Eustace]

The wood handled single blade was a gift from Georgi and it is a treasure to me.

Just one correction, Ray. This knife is Bulgarian and not Russian / USSR.
It is clear to me that for you the whole eastern bloc, behind the Iron Curtain at that time, was connected with the USSR. But Bulgaria was never a union republic of the Soviet socialist republics.
After the Second World War we were occupied for several years (after all, we were allies of Germany), but after 1950 in Bulgaria there were neither Soviet troops nor Soviet participation in governing the country.

My humblest apologies my friend and thank you for the correction.

No need to apologize, my friend! You didn't insult me with anything. On the subject of history, I'm too ... uh ... punctual.
Off topic:
A grateful customer, to whom I made a chopper, just brought me a bottle of 10-year-old quince brandy. So, I'm going to pour a little for your health.

[Eustace]

And back to the topic:
Shepherd's knife, produced in plant 1 in the city of Karaganda, Kazakhstan.
The absolute Soviet classic, the Squirrel (Белка) knife. In Mint condition, its price now in Russia is comparable to the price of new Spyderco.

[1967redrider]

Very cool, thanks for posting!

[Eustace]

USSR fishing knives.

[Nephilim]

I recently acquired a couple knives made in the USSR, including an interesting craft produced knife. This style of knife is typically referred to as a Russian/Soviet barrel knife (not to be confused with the Swedish barrel knife). Next to is a squirrel knife, for scale.

When 'closed', the knife is a nice cylindrical bottle opener.

One has to unscrew the blade/bottle opener, reverse it and screw it back in to open it.

There seems to be no shortage of these on the Soviet memorabilia market. In this case, the blade is stainless steel and the barrel is aluminum, engraved with a crosshatch pattern and painted black. These can be found with myriad different decorations, ranging from simple being left in the white with some simple texturing, to having figures or flowers painted on them and then covered in clear plastic. Essentially, no two are alike. The most common story I've read about their origin in that they were made by prisoners or factory workers in their off hours. Given how nicely the screw is threaded, the complex shape and regular symmetry of the barrel, the knifemaker was proficient with some machine tools. I'd love to hear any more information about these, or indeed about the famous squirrel knife (like, where they were made exactly).

[Eustace]

I'd love to hear any more information about these, or indeed about the famous squirrel knife (like, where they were made exactly).

The squirrel was produced in the 70-80s in the Production Plant "Moscow Union of Hunters and Fishermen" (ПК МООиР).
They are also produced with other animals - I have seen foxes, sables and panthers - but they are very rare.

[Rostovsky]

Russian prison knives.
It would be more correct to call them knives made by prisoners.
In Soviet times, there were quite a lot of such knives, hunting, combat, kitchen, they are now collectibles and quite often appear on flea markets, they are not very rare and have not very high value.
In the USSR, places of detention were often equipped with some kind of production (metalworking, production of building materials, sawmills, etc.) and prisoners were required to work in such industries. As a result, the prisoners had access to metalworking machines and various materials. The production of knives in places of detention was strictly prohibited, but there was still a place for such knives to be released in decent quantities.
Such knives had their own "thieves'" style, were often decorated with special ornaments, special (but inexpensive) materials were used in the decoration and most of these knives had to be sold to ordinary people for money, and not used for crime. At least that was the case in the 70s, 80s, which was in my memory. Such knives appeared out of nowhere and it is not clear from whom, just from some acquaintances through the tenth hands and could be purchased by anyone who was willing to pay money for them. Some models had signs of edged weapons and because of them it was possible to have problems with the law, others were made in a similar style, but they were not illegal, and that the knife was made in places of deprivation of liberty is not written on the knife. At the end of the 80s, such knives begin to lose their identity and originality, become similar to the Rambo knife and Crocodile Dundee, and by the beginning of the 90s, such production ends completely. Today, there are people in prisons who have not held anything except an iPhone in their hands. There is no one to make knives.
The Second World War.
Two armies of several million people each converged in Europe. No matter how many combat knives the Soviet industry made for the Soviet Army (one broke, the other lost), there was still a place for folk art. In front-line auto repair and tank repair workshops, items of simple soldier's life were made in a private artisanal manner. Cigarette cases made of aviation aluminum, lighters made of brass cartridge cases, knives that a soldier could exchange for cigarettes, food, alcohol.
Knives made in such workshops often had a dial handle. The guard and the rear part of the handle were made of aviation aluminum or brass spare parts from broken equipment. The middle of the handle was made of transparent plates from fragments of the cockpit of downed aircraft, broken red brake lights from automotive equipment, from black or brown tank battery cases. Thus, the handle consisted of alternating plates of transparent, red, brown colors. That is, it was tricolor. Between such plates there could be brass gaskets made of cartridge cases.
After the end of the Second World War, such a tradition of a three-color dial handle comes to places of imprisonment. The color and material of the plates could be any other that came to hand, but it was almost never blue. The blue finish was the uniform of the NKVD troops who fought crime. The handles could be simply wooden, entirely aluminum, brass, anything, could have an overhead mounting, but still a color set of plastic plates was more characteristic.
In the late 70s, early 80s, folding knives-automatic machines became widespread. The pads were made of plastic of various bright colors, a spring from a table clock was used as a spring. Such a knife was illegal and it was impossible to advertise it much. While studying at school, I exchanged such a knife from a friend for figurines of soldiers, but my parents were not enthusiastic about such a knife and I quickly exchanged it for a collection of postage stamps.
Did criminals use such knives? I don't know. There were no criminals among my family's acquaintances. But there were many such knives around, hunters, fishermen, travelers.
Sorry if too much has been written.
If you don't mind, I could continue later.

[1967redrider]

I thought for sure I had posted my RPK trio before, but I can't find it anywhere. So here they are, straight outta Russia via Ukraine. Sharp? Not really. But they do have excellent springs and a stabby blade. Lock up open or closed too.

[Madmarco]

Thank you, Ros, and you can continue if you like anytime you want.
Your information so far is close to what we've been told, some is different but basically the same.
Thx again!

[Madmarco]

All 3 are really cool, John, but I'm liking the one in the middle in particular, perhaps cuz I haven't seen it before now.
I assume they all came from Mike.

[1967redrider]

All 3 are really cool, John, but I'm liking the one in the middle in particular, perhaps cuz I haven't seen it before now.
I assume they all came from Mike.

They are from Mike, thanks!

[Rostovsky]

https://ibb.co/n6Q6VZ5
I can't insert a picture
not all codes from Russia are displayed correctly. I'll try to think of something. I have a lot of pictures

[Rostovsky]

I thought for sure I had posted my RPK trio before, but I can't find it anywhere. So here they are, straight outta Russia via Ukraine. Sharp? Not really. But they do have excellent springs and a stabby blade. Lock up open or closed too.

There are Latin letters on the upper knife, which has never been 40-80 years. But the lower knife is almost an ideal sample. But again, chemical etching of the pattern appeared at a much later time. We will not argue about the time of manufacture of these knives, but all three knives in shape and content correspond to the concept of "zekprom".
"zekprom" is a playful concept, translated as prisoners' industry

[1967redrider]

I thought for sure I had posted my RPK trio before, but I can't find it anywhere. So here they are, straight outta Russia via Ukraine. Sharp? Not really. But they do have excellent springs and a stabby blade. Lock up open or closed too.

There are Latin letters on the upper knife, which has never been 40-80 years. But the lower knife is almost an ideal sample. But again, chemical etching of the pattern appeared at a much later time. We will not argue about the time of manufacture of these knives, but all three knives in shape and content correspond to the concept of "zekprom".
"zekprom" is a playful concept, translated as prisoners' industry

Thanks for this information and this is the picture you have linked above.