Eickhorn folding knife Please help ID

**twism94** · 07-26-2014, 07:20 AM

thanks

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 07-26-2014 07:20 AM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**JERSEY 34** · 07-26-2014, 07:25 AM

Hi,
I remember seeing these at school!!!! Our headmaster had a few he'd confiscated during the term and they were in his draw. If I remember correctly they were called butterfly knives....it was a long time ago, somewhere around 36 years ago I last saw one. But they were I believe a repro/copy/fake of the time (1975/80's) and no such "original" ever existed. I might be wrong on that but thats how I recall these things.
All the best from Jersey,
D

**rbminis** · 07-26-2014, 07:35 AM

by JERSEY 34

Hi,
I remember seeing these at school!!!! Our headmaster had a few he'd confiscated during the term and they were in his draw. If I remember correctly they were called butterfly knives....it was a long time ago, somewhere around 36 years ago I last saw one. But they were I believe a repro/copy/fake of the time (1975/80's) and no such "original" ever existed. I might be wrong on that but thats how I recall these things.
All the best from Jersey,
D

Damian is correct.
Ralph.

**Australia** · 07-26-2014, 07:36 AM

I have bad feelings about this one !
This is my one (made in china)

**JERSEY 34** · 07-26-2014, 07:37 AM

More of the same, shame as the idea was quite appealing.
D

**Richie B** · 07-26-2014, 08:06 AM

Complete fantasy item.

paratrooper knife???

The pantograph knife did exist - as well as the Joseph Rodgers design there was a German patent.

**JERSEY 34** · 07-26-2014, 08:12 AM

Hi Richie B,
I have not seen that before, but did they go into production during or pre ww.2, were they issued or used. Always willing to learn as no one knows everything and when they think they do then they should go back to the beginning and start all over again. I don't see a date on the drawing, so do you know where this comes from.
This is where this forum excels, there is always someone with that extra bit of info whose willing to help and add to the subject at hand, building a more complete and accurate picture.
D.

**Richie B** · 07-26-2014, 10:43 AM

by JERSEY 34

Hi Richie B,
I have not seen that before, but did they go into production during or pre ww.2, were they issued or used. Always willing to learn as no one knows everything and when they think they do then they should go back to the beginning and start all over again. I don't see a date on the drawing, so do you know where this comes from.
This is where this forum excels, there is always someone with that extra bit of info whose willing to help and add to the subject at hand, building a more complete and accurate picture.
D.

I think the patent dates from the 1930s. I found the picture on British Blades forum - the original poster said 1938. Ihave just noticed what I think is a date - 22.10.37 in the top right corner of the picture.

On reflection I wonder if the knife in the drawing I posted is a butterfly knife/balisong rather than a pantograph knife.

I have never seen anything to indicate that this type of knife was issued but I suppose if it was manufactured then one could have been carried during the war.

**Larry C** · 07-26-2014, 12:32 PM

Many of these knives..in different forms were created..and prototypes sent off for approval. Many were never implemented into service. Hard to say now about this particular knife..as most of these started surfacing post war. A possibility exists that someone found the schematics..and made a production run from the original specs.

Luftwaffe paratrooper collectors would know best about armament and uniforms..what they exactly carried. I will post this thread as a link in a thread in the Luftwaffe section..hopefully to draw more comments. Regards Larry

Connecting link : Fallschirmjager Information needed !

**HPL2008** · 07-26-2014, 01:42 PM

Pantographic knives have been around for a long time, but they were never issued to the Wehrmacht or SS.

In fact, while they are commonly referred to as "paratrooper knives", I am unaware of any evidence that they were ever issued to the paratroops of any country.

Luftwaffe paratroopers as well as other aircrew carried a knife officially called Flieger-Kappmesser, the purpose of which was to free oneself from a parachute by cutting the cords or straps if it was impossible to open the harness and slip out of it in the normal way. (For example when the chute had become entangled in a tree.) Introduced in 1937, this was a sturdy gravity knife with an integrated folding rigging spike and a metal lanyard attachment ring. Later models were improved with a takedown feature, but were otherwise the same type of knife.

It is worth noting that a pantographic knife really has no advantages over the gravity knife for the alleged military purpose. On the contrary: Unlike the gravity knife, it requires both hands to open it. (The lack of an attachment point being another disadvantage.)

See here for practical demonstrations of how to operate the respective mechanisms:

Knife Review: Replica Nazi Pantographic Knife - YouTube
For sale - Luftwaffe gravity knife - YouTube

I really don't have the slightest doubt that all Heer/Luftwaffe/SS marked examples of pantographic knives are of post-war manufacture (or, at best and in a very few cases, period civilian knives with post-war applied bogus markings).

Typically, as in case of the two knives seen above, the markings are ridiculously overdone, anyway. (Not to mention the fact that the SS-Streifendienst was a service of the Allgemeine SS whose mission basically was to see to it that SS members dressed and behaved properly in public, kept out of off-limits premises, carried ID papers etc. Why would they have needed a special fighting knife? To stab anybody with a loose tie and dull boots?)