Mystery fish-shaped knife.

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Nephilim
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Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2020 2:45 am

Mystery fish-shaped knife.

Post by Nephilim »

Hoping to figure out where and when this was made and any other interesting information. Seller got it from an estate auction in the UK and believed it was made in the 1960s, probably based on the collection it was in. A flat-stamped, all stainless steel, fish shaped slipjoint with protruding pins.
20220916_165839 (2).jpg
There is no text on the tang stamp, just this symbol I don't recognize. This was the most in-focus I could get on a closeup, but the stamping itself isn't very crisp.
There is no text on the tang stamp, just this symbol I don't recognize. This was the most in-focus I could get on a closeup, but the stamping itself isn't very crisp.
Here's a couple more images of both sides of the knife.
20220916_161709 (2).jpg
20220916_161815 (2).jpg
The reason I bought this in the first place was it looked similar (but not identical) to some old North Korean produced pocketknives: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/ ... cket-knife . As best I know, North Korea produced these back in the day for export to Eastern European combloc countries. A North Korean knife would definitely be and interesting addition to my collection, but I'd be curious to know if there are any other connections between these two pieces (i.e. one was inspired by the other one). Thanks!
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TwoFlowersLuggage
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Re: Mystery fish-shaped knife.

Post by TwoFlowersLuggage »

That symbol certainly looks like an Asian language of some sort, I suspect you need someone that speaks Korean, Japanese, Cantonese or Mandarin to look at it and see if it means something. Sometimes it is useful to know some history of the person who previously owned the knife - where their family was from, did he travel, was he in the military or gov service, did he do business internationally, etc. Of course, it could have been a gift from someone who did one of those things, or he might have picked it up at an estate sale just like you! :)
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Nephilim
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Re: Mystery fish-shaped knife.

Post by Nephilim »

Possibly, but I speak a little Japanese (and read far less) and I don't think its a letter or Kanji character. The 3 horizontal lines could be a Chinese numeral 3. The Korean hangul alphabet has some syllables that look similar, with a circle shaped section, but none connected to left facing horizontal line. I kind of suspect its a stylized image of a fruit with a twig and leaf attached.
Reverand
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Re: Mystery fish-shaped knife.

Post by Reverand »

My first thought was Mikov cutlery in Czechoslovakia, but theirs looks very different.
I don't remember seeing this knife before, but I believe that I have seen that tang stamp somewhere else on AAPK. Not helpful as I have no idea how to find that thread to compare it, but...
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TwoFlowersLuggage
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Re: Mystery fish-shaped knife.

Post by TwoFlowersLuggage »

Well, once I found one picture and then used google's "related images", I seem to have found several of them! This is a link to BF where a guy claims to have had one as a kid and he says it is Chinese:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/tre ... t-19404019

Here is one on ebay in 2016:
https://www.antiquesnavigator.com/d-226 ... h-fob.html

Here's another one (or I suppose it could be the same one!) on Etsy:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/694715422/ ... ng_details

The more I look at that tang stamp (and turn it 90 deg!), the more I think you are right about it being fruit.
"The Luggage had a straightforward way of dealing with things between it and its intended destination: it ignored them." -Terry Pratchett
Nephilim
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Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2020 2:45 am

Re: Mystery fish-shaped knife.

Post by Nephilim »

Thank you, I suspect that BF post is correct and that it is likely Chinese. Probably before they were regularly putting country of manufacture on them. If this is old enough, I imagine it was still a product of state industry. I wonder if these were primarily domestic or export? Also, I can see now that my example is definitely missing it's bail.
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