Okay, who knows a little somethin' about vintage pocket knives?

WhyNot · #1 09-23-2012, 06:38 PM

Found this little beauty in my grandmother's belongings, and am trying to find out more about it. It's in pretty rough shape, sadly.

It's tiny, less than 3 inches closed, and not even 6 fully opened. 3 blades, one file.

On one blade, I can read "SWEDE" with a worn spot that looks like maybe it used to be an N.

Another of the blades has an easy to read 19 on it, which you can see in the second picture.

A third blade has some words, but some parts of them are rubbed away, so it looks (using a loupe) like:
____MAN
____AGO
_WEDEN
(You can just barely make these out in the first picture, upper right hand blade)

The file has no words that I can see.

After that, I got nothin'. The closest to something like it I can find online is this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-Vintage...item3cc7db12cb but it's got some pretty obvious differences in the shape of the file, the number on the blade, the decoration...so it may be a red herring.

Anyone?

Chefguy · #2 09-23-2012, 06:57 PM

Made in Sweden, probably a lady's knife with the flowers and all, and given the size. Impossible to tell how old, but the blades look pretty abused.

Zebra · #3 09-25-2012, 02:36 PM

A Country or Origin label in English means that it was made after 1930.

WhyNot · #4 09-25-2012, 04:40 PM

Ever start a thread and forget to go back to it? I'm sorry!

Thanks, Chefguy. I'd sort of gotten that far, but only by blind assumption. Glad to see I'm not making completely erroneous leaps.

Zebra, good to know, thank you.

Hmmm...Not quite the response I was hoping for which was, I admit, "Oh my god that's a Zapthrustra Original sold only to royalty, I'll give you 10 zillion dollars for it right now!!!!" Or, at least, maybe a lead on a maker.

I'm mostly perplexed that 30 pages of google images for Sweden vintage pocket knife doesn't yield anything even close. Weird. This is two items of hers the internet has failed me on! Humbug.

Sofis · #5 09-28-2012, 05:32 AM

This one looks identical (including the number) except for the decoration, made by Emil Olsson. That's from a site by someone with a great interest in Nordic knives (specifically this page listing knives sold at various auctions during 2009). His email is anders (at) cultur (dot) nu. Possibly he could tell you more.