Pantograph knife - ErMa Kastor

[gerrit]

To quote Zaza. ' the real form of Joseph Rodgers design...' So was the original design English?

Mark.

No it was a German patent:

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

If your looking closely at #6 by Ritchie, you can read that the design of 1937 are made by Ernst Mandewirth, a large producer of HJ knives (see attachtment)

The actual knife shown here by Zazadze is produced by the ERMA/Kastor its clearly visible at its ricasso!

I have found 2 positive identities for ERMA: 1 as a registered bladesmith and 1 as a firearms producer

Here the page that contains the ERMA we need: Ernst mandewirth, so the official drawings of 1937 by Ernst Mandewirth and the actual produced knife now has a match!


Regards
Ger

[zazadze]

[QUOTE=gerrit;1795837]No it was a German patent:

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

If your looking closely at #6 by Ritchie, you can read that the design of 1937 are made by Ernst Mandewirth, a large producer of HJ knives (see attachtment)

the actual knife shown here by Zazadze is produced by the ERMA Werke, that factory went bankrupt in 1998 and produces fire arms.

"Erfurter Maschinenfabrik (ERMA) was a German weapons manufacturer founded in 1922 by Berthold Geipel. Prior to and during World War II it manufactured many firearms, including the K98k, MP40, and several other submachine guns"


Thank you gerrit.

I think this message sort out the suspicion on this pantograph knife. It is not a reproduction.

And also there is no Swastika added to this Paul Zazade knife.

It is a D.R.G.M.

Regards,

zazade

[Anderson]

In some ways an ingenious design looking for a problem, which it never quite answered. I believe the gravity knife won.

[gerrit]

in fact i would love to own this ERMA/ KASTOR knife.
imo a nice original.

regards
Ger

[Larry C]

To be honest this is my first observation of an authentic pantograph knife ..once that a Solingen producer was revealed on the Ricasso...all doubt went out the window that these kind of knives were just created junk with added TR decorations. Once I seen the Kastor name ..and Ger connected the dots with Erma's identity ... These flex knives are real.

Turned out to be a knowledge in the finding type thread. Cool militaria

Regards Larry

[gerrit]

No it was a German patent:

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

If your looking closely at #6 by Ritchie, you can read that the design of 1937 are made by Ernst Mandewirth, a large producer of HJ knives (see attachtment)

The actual knife shown here by Zazadze is produced by the ERMA/Kastor its clearly visible at its ricasso!

I have found 2 positive identities for ERMA: 1 as a registered bladesmith and 1 as a firearms producer

Here the page that contains the ERMA we need: Ernst mandewirth, so the official drawings of 1937 by Ernst Mandewirth and the actual produced knife now has a match!


Regards
Ger

So i edited my Original post which contained info about the ERMA Werke ( which i deleted, as it was a gunsmith)
I have added the bladesmith ERMA which i found on a list of registered Solinger Bladesmiths.

No doubt this ERMA/Kastor knife is a fine Original!
Thx for showing this one, and i hope Larry will seperate this thread into a ERMA thread as it is a nice discovery! and for me the first time to see the Original design with the knife!

Regards
Ger

[Rossi]

Good stuff and great thread. I knew about the original version of the ERMA / Kastor knife but had not run across one personally in my collecting years so this is nice to see addressed here on WRF. We all of course have seen the bad copies of it out there. Awesome detail to all who contributed. Thanks!

Rossi

[zazadze]

Thank you Larry, Gerrit, Rossi and all. It is good to share the ERMA/Kastor knife in WRF. Now the official drawings of 1937 by Ernst Mandewirth and the actual produced knife has matched as Gerrit said with the help of him... I think it is a milestone for the pantograph knife. Thanks for all who pieced together this puzzle...

Best Regards,

zazadze

[Frogprince]

[QUOTE=zazadze;1795843]

No it was a German patent:

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

If your looking closely at #6 by Ritchie, you can read that the design of 1937 are made by Ernst Mandewirth, a large producer of HJ knives (see attachtment)

the actual knife shown here by Zazadze is produced by the ERMA Werke, that factory went bankrupt in 1998 and produces fire arms.

"Erfurter Maschinenfabrik (ERMA) was a German weapons manufacturer founded in 1922 by Berthold Geipel. Prior to and during World War II it manufactured many firearms, including the K98k, MP40, and several other submachine guns"


Thank you gerrit.

I think this message sort out the suspicion on this pantograph knife. It is not a reproduction.

And also there is no Swastika added to this Paul Zazade knife.

It is a D.R.G.M.

Regards,

zazade

ERMA (Erfurter Maschinenfabrik maker code 'ayf') was a firearms maker based in Thuringia not Solingen, and during the TR probably it's perhaps mostly associated with sub-machine guns although they made other types as mentioned. Interesting knife. Best Regards, Fred

[zazadze]

Here I sum up the photos, datas and the drawings of ERMA/Kastor pantograph knife...