The Jet Pilots Survival Knife

[sactroop]

Congratulations!  Even with the loss of the original finish on the blade the steel guard and pommel make it a lot more genuine than most of the others I ever see.

By that I mean I agree with you about this knife being most likely an issued item.

[Boy Howdy]

9 minutes ago, sactroop said:

Congratulations!  Even with the loss of the original finish on the blade the steel guard and pommel make it a lot more genuine than most of the others I ever see.

By that I mean I agree with you about this knife being most likely an issued item.

Thank you, SIr.

[tkidcharlemagne]

Recently purchased at auction as a WW2 Italian commando knife. I havent been able to find out anything online. It's stamped Hoffritz Italy(second pic). It was heavily rusted so I gave it a good clean. There's a strong magnifying glass as seen in the photos and a pinhole further up the blade which makes me believe it's to do with map reading navigation. It has a heavy serrated edge, bottle/can opener near hilt and another hole presumably for unscrewing bolts. It is I guess a heavy duty survival knife. Has a heavy bronze hilt and a metal grip with a similar bronze pommel. About 13 inches in length in a nice leather scabbard with a sharpening stone inside. I mean it looks militaryesque. Hoffritz was an American company I understand so my assumption is it's post WW2. For who's military and branch is open to question. Could it even be American services. Korea or Nam. Was it a mass produced item or a specialist item. It's a real big heavy and quite intimidating item I must confess. Anyone have any ideas? I understand from this thread Hoffritz was retailing survival knives that may have been bought by pilots. The scabbard looks very nam era. The magnifying glass in the blade is pretty unusual isn't it. It looks a high end product. Would the entire knife be Italian made.

[tkidcharlemagne]

Sorry I posted the same pic twice and can't seemingly edit. Here's a close up pic showing the magnifier.

[SKIPH]

Have never even seen one of these. Not US, that's for sure.  Have no clue as to who might have had these.  SKIP

[tkidcharlemagne]

But Hoffritz is an American retailer so this must have been purchased in the States. At least that is my understanding. It was I'm guessing made in Italy for sale in the States. You're right though. I've never seen a magnifier in a blade. The Hoffritz name I've found on jet pilot like knives before.

[sactroop]

IMHO, the knife is likely a commercial offering from well after WW2.  If I was to guess,  1960's-1980's maybe a little later.

[SKIPH]

actroop- Must have missed something over the years, have not heard of the "Hoffritz" name before. Having lived around Ft Bragg most of the last 53 years ,  commercial or military survival knives are encountered frequently. This is a new one to me. Glad tkidcharlmagne brought it to our attention.  SKIP

[sundance]

Hoffritz was a US company selling cutlery, mostly in the NY area I believe. Internet says they started in the1930's.  

[tkidcharlemagne]

10 minutes ago, sundance said:

Hoffritz was a US company selling cutlery, mostly in the NY area I believe. Internet says they started in the1930's.  

They sold a lot of swiss army knives I believe. Which is interesting as this appears to have a bit of the multitool about it.Yes sactroop I believe it's 60s IMHO. Does anyone have any idea about the purpose of the small hole in the blade. I guess the magnifier could be used as a firestarter also.

[sactroop]

SKIP,  Neither had I heard of Hoffritz before today.  In the last hour that has changed.  Most of that time I was looking at over 400 listings of Hoffritz knives on eBay.  Most of those were kitchen  and dining ware.  There where a good number of pocket knives and some traditional hunting knives.  Most were listed as made in Germany with others from Italy, Great Briton, and Japan.  Some pieces were made by companies like Victorinox, INOX, and evan Schrade U.S.A.  While I didn't run across anything that looked similar to the knife above I saw enough variety to think they very well  could have sold these too.

If anyone would like to know more, I'd suggest to search "Hoffritz for Cutlery" and check out the Wikipedia page for them as a start.

 

It's hard for me to tell for sure but the hole reminds me of something you find in some multi-tools that are sized to capture small hex-nuts so they can be turned with out having the correct wrench.  Is that a spanner in English?😃

[indept]

I recently came across this knife. I've looked at countless images via Google, but can't seem to identify this specific knife.

Does anyone have more information on this? 

[luke66]

On 4/2/2023 at 8:38 PM, tkidcharlemagne said:

Recently purchased at auction as a WW2 Italian commando knife. I havent been able to find out anything online. It's stamped Hoffritz Italy(second pic). It was heavily rusted so I gave it a good clean. There's a strong magnifying glass as seen in the photos and a pinhole further up the blade which makes me believe it's to do with map reading navigation. It has a heavy serrated edge, bottle/can opener near hilt and another hole presumably for unscrewing bolts. It is I guess a heavy duty survival knife. Has a heavy bronze hilt and a metal grip with a similar bronze pommel. About 13 inches in length in a nice leather scabbard with a sharpening stone inside. I mean it looks militaryesque. Hoffritz was an American company I understand so my assumption is it's post WW2. For who's military and branch is open to question. Could it even be American services. Korea or Nam. Was it a mass produced item or a specialist item. It's a real big heavy and quite intimidating item I must confess. Anyone have any ideas? I understand from this thread Hoffritz was retailing survival knives that may have been bought by pilots. The scabbard looks very nam era. The magnifying glass in the blade is pretty unusual isn't it. It looks a high end product. Would the entire knife be Italian made.

This knife has nothing to do with any Italian military knife.

 

Luca - Italy

[sactroop]

17 hours ago, indept said:

I recently came across this knife. I've looked at countless images via Google, but can't seem to identify this specific knife.

Does anyone have more information on this? 

I suspect that this is a copy of a U.S. KPSK made oversee's.  The blade seems to have a protrusion between the recasso and the blade edge that I've never seen on regulation KPSK's.  The pommel is wrong and the grooves in the leather handle don't match with any contract knives I can think of.  Too much corrosion on most of the knife to see much else.

[Boone]

New to the forum

Mystery Camillus Jpsk

I recently found a Camillus that looks almost brand new. It has the pre 1967 Camillus NY on the ricasso, but it has no metal washers between the handle and guard or pommel. It also isn't peened or have any blue/gray sealant on the pommel. Did Camillus ever make a reproduction like the M3 and M4? 

[luke66]

On 4/2/2023 at 8:38 PM, tkidcharlemagne said:

Recently purchased at auction as a WW2 Italian commando knife. I havent been able to find out anything online. It's stamped Hoffritz Italy(second pic). It was heavily rusted so I gave it a good clean. There's a strong magnifying glass as seen in the photos and a pinhole further up the blade which makes me believe it's to do with map reading navigation. It has a heavy serrated edge, bottle/can opener near hilt and another hole presumably for unscrewing bolts. It is I guess a heavy duty survival knife. Has a heavy bronze hilt and a metal grip with a similar bronze pommel. About 13 inches in length in a nice leather scabbard with a sharpening stone inside. I mean it looks militaryesque. Hoffritz was an American company I understand so my assumption is it's post WW2. For who's military and branch is open to question. Could it even be American services. Korea or Nam. Was it a mass produced item or a specialist item. It's a real big heavy and quite intimidating item I must confess. Anyone have any ideas? I understand from this thread Hoffritz was retailing survival knives that may have been bought by pilots. The scabbard looks very nam era. The magnifying glass in the blade is pretty unusual isn't it. It looks a high end product. Would the entire knife be Italian made.

Hi, I am an italian collector since many years and i exclude this is an italian commando knife. It’s not an italian military knife WW2 or post WW2.

[Arisaka99]

10 hours ago, Boone said:

New to the forum

Mystery Camillus Jpsk

I recently found a Camillus that looks almost brand new. It has the pre 1967 Camillus NY on the ricasso, but it has no metal washers between the handle and guard or pommel. It also isn't peened or have any blue/gray sealant on the pommel. Did Camillus ever make a reproduction like the M3 and M4? 

6” blade? 

[Boone]

.

 

No, 5 inch

[sactroop]

After Camillus lost the Government contract for the JPSK they eventually stopped using the metal washers between the guard and the pommel.  But those also had the post contract stamping on the blade, as I'm showing below.

 

Looks like an early blade with the wrong type  sealant on the pommel and a post contract hilt.

First time I can remember seeing one like this.

[Boone]

I appreciate the responses. I've been doing research with no answers so far, but I'll keep trying. It's a nice, unique piece to add to my collection.

[schmooser]

19 minutes ago, Boone said:

I appreciate the responses. I've been doing research with no answers so far, but I'll keep trying. It's a nice, unique piece to add to my collection.

I think sactroop read the knife quite well.

[Boone]

I agree, but it's still a mystery.

[sactroop]

I can't help but to remember that after the auction of Camillus's holdings, over time a lot of unfamiliar knives with Camillus identifiers started showing up across the internet as well as other places.

It is a mystery and/or curiosity, possibly a good conversation starter.

[RWW]

Has the Army changed the color of the ASEK handle or are they still foliage green in Multicam or now OCP sheaths?

 

This is a line from post #36 in this topic.

 

On 7/13/2012 at 10:16 PM, hawkdriver said:

When they were issued their new Multicam Air Warrior vests, they received a Multi Cam scabbard and were told to put their Foilage handle knives into their MC sheath. Looks really ridiculous, I hope this gets changed.