Carsten,
In the early to mid 1970's the FJ I worked with carried the standard BW knife. This was a fixed blade sheath knife with a single edge and metal sheath, There was a finger guard and a plastic one piece handle in the classic "Forester" shape was held on by a big screw with a lanyard hole in it.
Oddly US GIs often called that Kampfsmesser a German Butter Knife.
Once working with Alpine troops I saw a variant of that knife that had black furniture a guard on both sides and a double edge ground blade. Not sure if it was issue or an affectation of those troops. Made me immediately think of an SA or SS dress dagger.
As the German Army of the time did not use bayonets the Green Butterknife was often seen. I believe both Stork and Zwiblings produced these sheath knives. Every one that I came across sharpened well and mine held and edge pretty well.
There were several FJ knives floating around in my US Infantry unit. The Marlin spike worked just fine on US GI climbing rope, BTW, though we were encouraged to stick a carabiner in our knots before tensioning them so as to be able to provide ourselves slack when attempting to untie them.
There was another Gravity knife floating about that was also called a Parachutist knife by us and some Germans I knew. These were flatter and lighter, had no marlin spike, and had pinned on black plastic scales. Some said these were post war, some said not military issue and one old German FJ NCO I met claimed to have been issued one in late '44 or '45 and claimed they were an end of the war catch as catch can. I carried one for a bit that the handles had cracked and fallen off of and had been wrapped in old style cloth electrical tape , black in color, and while I had no real issues with it locking open or closed I did prefer the "Butter knife" which I carried in the field and sometimes in garrison, depending on uniform and even in civies. My "maybe it was a late war FJ knife" was a legacy, having been passed on by at least two others before me when such things were not importable and forbidden to US troops. I gave it to a promising Newbee when I became a Two Didget Midget and encouraged him to do the same when he got short. That gravity knife gave one a warm and fuzzy good feeling when down town in civies and maybe in a bad area. One of my squad members that had the Marlin spiked knife carried his in a pocket down town.
Honestly the Eichorn Switchblade/Lock blade I carried in civies a bit made better sense and was likely a better knife than either of the FJ knives and with stag horn grips looked much nicer ( and the squirrel was cute) and more compact than either......but did not have that military mystic.
HSO,
Thanks for your original post and thanks for showing the knife with the opening lever forward. For whatever reason folks seldom do. I got to say they were a heavy and clunky knife as such things go.......but.....beat the heck out of the WWII US GI parachute knife. BTW that Marlin spike can make a nasty wound if one happens to be flip flopping around a concrete floored GP Medium Tent and drops the knife with the spike open that they were using to scape mud out of the seams of a combat boot with. No not me but "I was there."
-kBob
What is the purpose of the spike, hos? Is it used for knots like a marlin spike? It's much thinner than a marlin spike, at least in the pictures. Very nice. Do you have one?
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