Mystery knives

No, it has no marks on both sides of the main blade. I cleaned it more and looked closer. There is stamped "17" on one side of the claw like hook.
There are also small letters that look like cyrillic "U3P30K". I googled it and got some pictures of old Russian flatware, but no folders.
 
I traded a S30V Blur Blem for this one and have tried to find the maker for years and even posted in the Bernard Levine thread a year or two ago but no one had any answers. It is a nice little edc fixed about 8" oal with hollow ground 4" blade (3.5" sharpened) and sweet micarta scales. It also came with a fairly generic basket weave leather sheath but it is pretty thick and nice quality.

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No, it has no marks on both sides of the main blade. I cleaned it more and looked closer. There is stamped "17" on one side of the claw like hook.
There are also small letters that look like cyrillic "U3P30K". I googled it and got some pictures of old Russian flatware, but no folders.

try @makandr, he is our resident expert on Russian knives.

n2s
 
It’s better left unknown...... This one is too dangerous to put out in mass quantities! Those serrations are just deadly!!!

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theater knife WWII made from US1904 bolo.jpg

Here is yet another kind of mystery knife. This thing clearly starts life as a US 1904 bolo, but it has undergone quite a facelift to convert it into a massive bowie-like fighter. Was it a WWII theater knife or a home project made in response to the film The Iron Mistress? We will never know. I particularly like the sheath work on this one, and it does seem to have been used and carried, so perhaps it was much more than a cool wall hanger. If it could only talk.:eek:

n2s
 
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To save you the trouble: this is how the 1904 bolo originally looked.:)

BTW, the blade stock on these was 3/8" at the base of the spine!

n2s
 
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Here's one that's a real mystery. My father in law brought this home after WWII and it sat on his dresser for he rest of his life.

My wife was born 17 years after WWII ended and never asked him anything about the knife or where in Europe he got it.
Actually she new almost nothing about his service in WWII until I researched his unit.
She gave it me after we were married , but he had already passed away.

The name "Leslie Andersen" is carved in the handle and the wood is well worn from being a daily user.
The face carved at the pommel was painted at one time.
It's probably home made, but I think it's older than WWII vintage.

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I know my father in law was in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge.

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Fun thread, OP! :cool::thumbsup:

My brother knows I like knives. He also "knows a guy" who likes to make knives, so he decided to send me a few. Looks like the steel is recycled from used circular saw blades. Um...I bet the guy had fun making them.

They live in a box in a deep dark corner of a closet. I should probably move them out to the garage.... :eek:

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This one is a little more interesting: an old-timey stag German hunting knife. It belonged to a friend of mine who comes from a long line of deer hunters, and claimed this knife for himself from the family stash years ago--and that's about all he knows about this knife. I told buddy he should really keep it, but he would take no refusal. Dunno what to do with it...

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Nice post war Solingen knife. Lots of similar German knives were imported by GCCC, Hoffritz or Edgemark.

I was given this one when I was 10.
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n2s
 
Their was a Leslie Anderson, who also served as a technician with the 35th infantry and died during the Battle of the Bulge in 1945. Maybe they met during the war and could have been buddies......????

Grave marker:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/134319509/leslie-g-anderson#:~:text=Leslie served as a Technician Fifth Grade, Company,a lumbermen and also as Single, without dependents.

I guess anything is possible.

Whoever owned it , the knife handle looks like it has 10 years of wear from use. It sharpened up nicely too.
My father in law never used it for anything other than light work. Mostly a souvenir.
 
It is easy for collectors to get fixated on production knives and the next sprint run. We all do that and there is nothing wrong with that. But, there is a lot of other fun and colorful knives out there beyond that wheelhouse; and it would be a shame to miss out on some of that stuff. WWII ended 75 years ago. If anything is still around from that period, there is probably a good reason for that.

n2s
 
There are also small letters that look like cyrillic "U3P30K". I googled it and got some pictures of old Russian flatware, but no folders.
Yes this is Soviet period knife from October factory from Vorsma, Russia.
During soviet time almost everything has price directly on the product. Ц3Р30К mean that price for this knife is (was) 3 soviet rubls and 30 kopecks, this is on 18 kopecks more than the bottle of Stolichnaya vodka at this period of time :)
 
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This was made on the Yukon, in 1944.

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The Yukon was an old (laid down in 1920) Artic Class Stores ship that saw service in the Atlantic and the Pacific throughout the war and survived a collision and several torpedo attacks. She served through the end of 1945 and was scraped in 1946. She must have had an excellent crew.

n2s
 
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