An Old quality made Japanese knife Sakai & Co

[Another Knife Collector]

I made an unusual addition to my collection recently with this one. It is a Pearl handle pen knife marked Sakai & Co Made in Japan. I'm not sure of its age, but the markings and way on manufacture seem to indicate something older than most other Japanese pocket knives I've seen. The pearl sections are held in via dovetailing with the bolsters, which makes for a nice clean look. The Pearl also seems to be a different type than Is usually seen. The spring is thicker in the middle and tapered on both ends so the blades fit snugly. Carbon steel blades and half stops on both. Really the bigges fault in manufacture is the use of brass pins. Kind of a neat piece I thought I'd share. If anyone has any info in interested!

[knife7knut]

A strange knife to be sure. The construction(smaller 2 piece pearl scales with a n/s divider)is typical of German made knives of the 20's and 30's and some English knives.Using brass for a pivot pin is almost unheard of, I wonder if it might be of German origin that has had the blades installed from another knife.If that were the case whomever did it knew what they were doing(except for the brass pivot pins).The tapering back springs were not uncommon on earlier two blade knives.

[dcgm4]

Cool knife!

I know G. Sakai was originally founded as Sakai Hamono (Sakai Cutlery) in 1958. The name was changed to G. Sakai Co., Ltd. in 1982. I don't know if your knife was made by this company, but if it was maybe they used that stamp sometime between 1958 and 1982. Sakai was often inspired by foreign blades, most notably Gerber.

[Another Knife Collector]

Very interesting! My curiosity is piqued now, so seeing as there's nothing to stop me from sliding off a pearl scale I decided to do just that. I was surprised to find that the bolsters are semi-hollow and soldered to the liners around the edges! I tried to snap a photo.

[dcgm4]

Very interesting. Do all the pearl scales slide out easily or is it just that one? If they all do, I can't help but wonder if the knife was designed to allow for interchangeable scales.

Also, I've seen hollow bolsters like that on some older German knives. Maybe k7k is correct and the blades were a later addition.

[Another Knife Collector]

I thought the bolster thing might be a giveaway, but after looking in my junk pile this Japanese switch has hollow soldered bolster and brass pins too. The handles definitely weren't meant to slide out, I was a little nervous I was going to break the Pearl sliding it haha. I'm hoping someone out there might have another like it, Japan or Germany I'm sure they must have been imported in some volume

[orvet]

Mostly I see the hollow bolsters on German knives. I guess it was a way to save a few cents in the making of a knife without making it obvious. I have even seen hollow soldered bolsters on German Bokers.

[Another Knife Collector]

To revive a very old topic, I was able to find another one of these, so now at least I know it has not been worked on and is indeed of Japanese origin. The second knife is marked NYMCO JAPAN. The pearl on this one is even better, with the same unusual construction as the first.

[knife7knut]

A neat find to be sure! I wonder if they made the scales dovetailed without pins to avoid drilling the pearl and perhaps damaging it during the process.I've worked with pearl a bit and it is very fragile unless soaked prior to working. Even then you are taking a chance because some times the pearl's layers will separate when subjected to vibration such as drilling or grinding. As for the brass pins;maybe that is a characteristic of early Japanese knives such as steel pins are with early German knives.