Posted 6 years ago
Teddy.M
(1 item)
Hi there. I recently got his knife from my grandfather. As he told me it was given to him by the fieldguard -a sort of police force put in place to keep people's farmland safe from thieves - (at least thats how it translates from greek) after retiring sometime in the mid 60s or so . After that it accompanied him when he went hunting. Anyways, the handle is made of hard ruber and the housing for the blades seems to be made out of brass. Upon examining the blades I noticed the manufacturer's stamp on the outer side of both blades. The one on the first picture is clearer but but was been chipped away from regular use. It looks like a headless eagle or maybe an axe of some sort. The same goes for the other blade but there seem to be some letters next to it. I could make out an I and a W or it could be an M and an I(depends on which side you consider top and bottom) The rest of it I couldn't make out. There is lettering visible on this blade because it was much less used. I would much appreciate any information about who made the knife and anything else relevant to it.
Thank you.
I suspect this is an old Imperial (pre-Soviet) Russian grafting knife. The light-colored in-filled piece, opposite the blade end, is ivory and used to extent about 1 1/2" to a flat, dull "spatula" called the "spud"; used to hold open the incision, made with the flat-ended blade, while a twig was inserted under the bark when grafting it onto the main limb or trunk of a tree.
Blades are traditionally marked so that when you hold the knife point up, with the edge to the left, you can read the stamp. In this case it looks like s double-headed imperial eagle. The lettering is not clear in your pictures but if I'm correct it is Cyrillic. Alternately, there are many double-headed eagles in European heraldry.
I looked up on Google Images vintage Russian grafting knife, and found 2 knives that had the same grip shape the grafting tool on the bottom an one blade that was exactly the same as the more curvy one of this knife. My idea is that my knife was made by the same company that made the two knives I mentioned as a part of contract. The same machinenery was used, explaining the gap for the grafting tool that was filled by the ivory piece as well as one of the blades being similar if not the same. Going to have to search a bit more.