I've purchased at least three knives from Ukranian Mikael Kovalenko under what he calls "Russian Prison Knives". Typically there's a group of us that he reaches out to via email showing a few pictures and a sub $100 price tag. I've passed up more than I have bought or been slow in pulling the trigger, so other folks have examples as well. Typically, it's amazing what these guys come up with and the odd-ball approaches and inordinate amount of time they must have spent in conception and execution. I happened to be reading email when this one popped up and while I'm pretty sure it's a production knife and not Russian, prison or otherwise, I hesitated about 1 nanosecond before buying it. I've since had one person try to buy it from me, but I doubt that I would take crazy money for it, even if I was desperate. I have never seen anything like it, and don't expect to ever again.
I have called this post 'urban legend' because of this crazy idea that somewhere there was a knife with a blade longer than the handle it folded into. As an engineer, I sought some means of making the blade with telescoping parts. I stared at those folding hunting knives with a leverlock mechanism that you sheathed folded with part of the blade sticking out, then unlocked to reveal the full length. There's that Assassin's Creed sleeve rig that telescopes to deliver a handle into your hand and the cutting part sticking out the front. I have a video somewhere of a folding spring loaded sword that some crazy Italian builds, it's about a foot long closed, and three feet long open ... but that's two feet of handle and a foot of blade. Now at last, here's a working model. The blade doesn't grow, but the handle shrinks!
It weighs 5.5 oz and measures 6-1/8" closed and 10" open, with a 5-1/2" blade (including the guard) against a 4-3/4" handle. It's about 3/32" thick. I say that it is a production knife because there is so much writing on the blade and bolsters that just can't be hand engraving. My guess is that production was very short lived, or maybe there were very few made. From the blade size and the German references, I'd say it's a late '50's product, thought it could be from any era. It could be Italian, but I am really leaning to German because of the design innovations and the odd combination of fonts and languages. The Italians are great at tradition, not so much at pushing the envelope.
One last comment and I will deal just with the knife itself: Some of the writing is in a German style called "fraktur" which was popular through WWII, and then sort of died out. My dad was born in 1910 and he wrote to his father, my namesake, in the old script, which he had learned in grade school. Here's the deal; the German word for street, strasse, and my last name, Sause share two unusual characteristics. The first S is the normal one, which is a single s, and in script resembles a G. The second S, is called an "esszet", and means a double S. Strasse is written "φraße" if not capitalized, and "Graße" if capitalized. My name is really "Grauße" which is Sausse, not Sause. One of my ancestors changed it when they emigrated to the USA. There aren't many of us around who would be able to correctly interpret the writing on the knife, and I'm probably the only one in the community now. See? The knife was destined for me!
Closing the knife is a complex process and I did it wrong in this shot ... so that accounts for the scratches near the point. You know how swingguard afficianados are wild about the acoustics? This one sounds better than any other swinger in my collection including my Pascutto 18. It's all that mechanical stuff moving about when you fire it. Most swingers make a beautiful note, this one is a symphony.
It's a bit hard to read, but the false edge says "W. Germanu" - which could be they simply misspelled Germany, or the tail of the y got obliterated. I'd bet someone who didn't know better type set it incorrectly. The there's a funny little round icon (a globe, maybe?), then "Solingen®". The knife has no safety and operates as a BOBC with a sturdy coil spring. Lord help me if anything ever breaks here, because I sure don't want to take this thing apart.
Now on the flip side, they go to modern English and say "FULL AUTO sl. 700" and "Stainless steel".
This is easily the coolest swinging guard that I have ever seen. It's carved out of a massive chunk of stainless, joined at the top so that it won't 'scissor' and very artistically shaped. It provides a wide and secure resting place for your thumb on top and a comfortable bottom that curls around your index finger.
This gizmo at the bottom is very strange. It operates on a separate spring, probably another coil spring. It's scant 3/32" thickness is split to accommodate the blade tip, and then it self-stows when you fire the blade.
The bolsters are cast from aluminum or pot metal, as they are soft and don't shine easily. The front one reads "FULL AUTO" again.
The back one says "Solingen Co.120". They repeat the eagle again, which could be a company logo, or a concession to the American side. As I said, it's really difficult to date this one. Could it have been made in Germany, post war, for sale to the GI's?
Well, that's the story. If you find any more like this one, Mikael, please ask me first!
