The Curious Case of the Spider and the Medici-Style Swinger!

[NorthCarolinaDude]

So, I picked up this 7" Rostfrei stamped swinguard from ACK somewhat recently. It was released onto the internet with a handful of its brothers, all under the maker name of "Daivid Restrei." I know a tiny bit of the Maniago "David" brand and doubt this is what the site, or its seller, was representing by filing this work under such a name and can only assume that it was just a quickly typed placeholder for the sale anyhow...?

I also know that these Rostfrei knives were meant to mimick the original German Puma "Medici" model, and have even see folk refer to them as an Italian take on the famed Cheetah design made famous by Case. That said, they're far more similar to the little German swinger then the Case model.

What made me buy this knife? I'm not sure. I feel like I have seen it before somewhere, replete with the spider captured in Lucite or whatever that plastic glass is made of. In fact, I spent some serious time searching the old inner-web to find out where I was so sure that I had seen this particular knife before, but to no avail. Of course, I found plenty of Medici styled examples, with and without the nail nicks, and some were even fileworked as can be seen in this OP here on TB:

viewtopic.php?t=25480

My questions are these. Does anybody recognize this actual knife? Or, does anybody believe they recognize the work? I thought maybe I had seen one on SloJoe's site and went through his whole catalog, yet again, only to find that yes, he had fileworked and rescaled a few, but no spiders! So who did the filework? And who added that funky little spider!? It's a fun mystery to me and I thought I'd bring it here to hear the opinions and input by those I most respect when it comes to identifying such work.

Any thoughts? Oh, and what is the meaning of the nail nick? Was it a manual convert? Or were nail nicks only on earlier models?? And, obviously, whom-by, where-by and when-by were these knives made?

I'd appreciate any information, opinions or posits on this one. It's always good to learn.

And a footnote, at the time of this posting, there's still a few of these available on ACK in various scales, but alas I bought the only one that showed up with a spider!!

Peace.

[Fishtail Picklock]

That's an interesting Medici Swingguard. I like it very much. (The title of the thread sounds like a grade "B" summer movie from the 1990s).

[Tom19176]

That one is made in Italy and cusomized by who know.
I had a bunch of the Spanish manual ones made for Puma after the older Germany made ones were no longer made

IMG_2123.JPG (35 KiB) Viewed 441 times

[tydy]

early BURN

[button_man]

.

Any time that you have to re-tool to modify a design, it naturally adds to the cost of manufacture.
I always assumed that spring-knives with nail-nick blades were simply put together with readily
available, mass-produced blades to avoid additional expense.

Interesting knife! You might try sending pix to arachnid nerds at a University or two in order
to pin down the location of this particular species. But whatever you do, be careful to NOT
crack open the plastic bubble! Countless films have taught us that once the creature is
exposed to Earth's atmosphere, it will grow to gargantuan proportions and ravage mankind....
.

[Bill DeShivs]

tydy is correct. Burn started out modifying knives this way.

[JulesVane]

early BURN

Tydy!

[jerryk25]

Yes . . I agree. . .looks like Burn's knives style. . . .
I saved jpg images of many of his creations. . . .
He had a few scorpions also. . .

[NorthCarolinaDude]

Thanks for the input guys. I'd love having any early Burn work in my collection, particularly since I have none. That is, unless you guys are messing with me. I guess I could always reach out via the site and seek confirmation.

I'm still curious about the nail nicks. I've seen them with and without. Maybe it's a chicken or the egg situation but I'm curious which is likely earlier. I understand the complexity of changing out equipment but thought maybe they just kept using the nicked ones until they finally received a batch without. But I guess it could go either way as well.

The spider is well done, it's countersunk too. The stag feels polished also. But yes, I have found myself looking at spiders online to find out the type. Whatever the type, it looks mean enough to sell the look.

BTW, I received a PM from someone seeking one and they could not find them on the site. If you go to Arizona and search on "swing guard" then they'll show up. As I said originally, they were filed on the site in an unusual manner. When I noticed the maker credited as "Daivid Restrei" I thought it was either a couple typos in a fast manner to get them uploaded or maybe a language issue. e.g. "Daivid" may phonetically represent "David" to someone.

Peace.

[Bill DeShivs]

No one is messing with you.

[NorthCarolinaDude]

No one is messing with you.

Thanks for the affirmation Bill. I had no idea this little knife could have had such a provenance as I highly respect the work of Burn. Thus it adds even more interest to me now. It will be fun trying to learn more about it.

I had worried I regressed in my collecting habits by being so enamored when I saw it. I had it in the basket and paid for within minutes of seeing it. And it's all because of that dang spider! Nevertheless, now I feel I made a good choice when I look back on the experience.

Scott

[Bill DeShivs]

Why don't you ask Paul?

[NorthCarolinaDude]

Why don't you ask Paul?

Just an update...

I took your advice Bill and reached out to Mr. Panak. He asked for a couple pics and replied back that it was in fact his work. He dated it somewhere around 1998-1999. I was impressed with how quickly he got back and was willing to take a look. A+ guy all around.

So now, I can proudly attest that I have a piece of work from this master!

Peace.

[NorthCarolinaDude]

I forgot to ask him what the spider was, however.