All About Pocket Knives

Got this last night in a 7 knife deal. I don't know if it's Japanese, Chinese, or Korean. Very well built, fitted sheath. 10-1/2" L.O.A. Any help appreciated. J.O'.

Hey J.O'.

I used Google translate to decipher the Japanese text...
It's possible you can do some additional research on Minamoto Masahiro to further research your newly acquired knife

Randy

Ridgegrass wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2025 11:20 pm Got this last night in a 7 knife deal. I don't know if it's Japanese, Chinese, or Korean. Very well built, fitted sheath. 10-1/2" L.O.A. Any help appreciated. J.O'.

Hey John!
About all I can offer on your knife is that it looks Japanese to me. If it turns out to be Japanese, Mark/SSk or Tony/CCC might have some insight for you since both are avid Japanese knife admirer's/collectors. To me the knife look like some sort of big pieces meat chopping/slicing tool, but who knows.

I was looking at your profile page trying to determine if you have an AAPK store, and I saw the link to your website. I must say, your appearance is pretty much how I had you visualized, which was that of a really cool older dude and I was right, you don't look a day over 48 never mind 78! Love the hat! I also now know how you came up with your AAPK handle, very clever, buddy! You've heard me say that I wish I lived in the US, well, that's even more so now so I could come to hear your band, your boys look like real cool guys that I bet can pump out some great Bluegrass! You have a blessed life, my friend!

Hello John. Looks like Minasoto Mashiro is still making knives in Osaka Japan. Here is a link to a website: https://www.yuisenri.com/collections/mi ... fxWUr3DdzI .
Looks like all they made have been kitchen cutlery. Not exactly a high end Japanese maker of cutlery but their products look good and don’t cost a lot. I thought I recognized that brand and I have seen their knives around for years. I never bought one of their kitchen knives because I have a lot of Japanese knives that are more unique. It’s not a bad knife, just not worth a lot of money, probably less than 100 dollars.
One way to tell if this is a kitchen knife is to look at the blade and bolster. High quality knives have a one piece construction where the blade, tang and bolster are all one piece so nothing can be left behind in a crevasse of the bolster. Lower quality kitchen knives may have a welded bolster or in the case of a cheap knife, two piece construction where a big gap is left.
Hope this helps.

Mark, Thanks for the great info. It appears to be a pretty good piece. Its all of one piece, blade bolster and tang, and heavily forged. I've never seen a kitchen knife with a sheath. The sheath is definitely a match, rivet placement, blade outline actually tooled into the front. I picked it up in a 7 knife deal which included a nice old, KA-BAR skinner that I wanted most, all for $90, so I guess I'm ahead. Would you know what the inscription says? Just the company name? If it's something you'd like, I'm always up for trades, Hawk-bills, oddities, etc. Thanks again, John O'.

John
I just saw a post from Ray/knife7knut , in the Fixed Blade forum under the title "Double your pleasure...double your fun"... . and on Page 2 of his pictures 9th knife down, is a knife that looks very similar to yours, and he describes it as a "Malco duct knife for cutting heating ducts". Thought you'd like to know!

I wouldn’t have a clue except to use Google translate and Randy already did on that. It is an interesting piece. The sheath with it does give me pause about it being used for something else, besides kitchen cutlery. But that picture of the bolster with the blade, bolster and tang all being one piece still makes me think it’s some kind of kitchen knife. I’ve been wrong before, just going off of what I know about kitchen cutlery.
Either way you got a good deal on those knives.

Thanks Mark. It is interesting. Kinda looks like the old style skinners. O'.

Ridgegrass wrote: ↑Sun Feb 09, 2025 4:18 pm Thanks Mark. It is interesting. Kinda looks like the old style skinners. O'.

My thoughts exactly, buddy, if your comment was directed to what I posted about seeing another one, above Mark/SSk's post! If not, well, never mind!

Thanks Randy, I missed your post somehow. Just saw it. Interesting. It's just writing but the way it's stamped gives it an exotic look, like some ancient katana. Still like to know its intended use. I'm leaning toward some hunting use ? J.O'.

After some conversations with a couple buddies, we agreed that it probably falls into the category of "Camp Knife". Whadaya think? O'.

Ridgegrass wrote: ↑Fri Feb 14, 2025 6:41 pm After some conversations with a couple buddies, we agreed that it probably falls into the category of "Camp Knife". Whadaya think? O'.

I think "Camp Knife" is a fair name for the knife. It's a nice knife, pretty hefty with the large bolster and no taper to the tang.
Awfully stout and the sheath is a real nice fit.
Looking at eBay I see several Dexter kitchen knives that have a similar, though less robust style.

So, camp knife it will be. (Till somebody comes up with something else.) O'.

Nice "Camp Knife", John!