All About Pocket Knives

I bought an old knife at an estate auction. don't have a clue about it. Here is a picture. It is a folding sheath knife. Folded, the blade is about five inches long, open it is about a foot. a small tang mark of what looks like a penguin. Any ideas?

I don`t recognize the mark.

Most likely it was made in either Pakistan, India, or even Japan

Is it (or was it) spring loaded? That little switch on the handle makes me wonder...

Hard to tell from the picture but it looks like it may be one of the Japanese versions of a German folding bowie made by companies such as Hubertus.Yours is missing the flip lever that engages the lock.The design goes well back into the 19th century with some very fine examples from England and Germany.The newer versions are made mostly in India and Pakistan and vary in quality from terrible to extremely terrible.
Here is an example of a Hubertus folding bowie.

the knife is not spring loaded but does have the lever that is pushed down to open it. From the age of the estate auction and other items it may be at least from the fifties or forties, possibly older. Here is another pic

thanks for the info. Looks like a knock-off Hubertus folding bowie. The blade quality seems to be good carbon steel. The bone handle has been jigged. Thanks again

It seems there was discussion a few months back about the "penguin" stamp and I think it was determined it was from Japan. Can't find that thread though. Don't hold me to this. Need to look some more.

Edit: I take it all back, I think it was a thunderbird instead of a penguin.

My error;it looked like the lever was missing when in fact it was just in a nearly vertical position.I'm going to have to look at pictures more closely.
Now that I can see the jigging more closely I think it is in fact of Japanese origin.Don't recall ever seeing that mark before though.The left-handed sheath is a bit unusual for a Japanese knife.

knife7knut wrote:Hard to tell from the picture but it looks like it may be one of the Japanese versions of a German folding bowie made by companies such as Hubertus.Yours is missing the flip lever that engages the lock.The design goes well back into the 19th century with some very fine examples from England and Germany.The newer versions are made mostly in India and Pakistan and vary in quality from terrible to extremely terrible.
Here is an example of a Hubertus folding bowie.

K7K is right on. This one looks a lot like the Valor imports from the 1960's and 1970's. The quality of the Japanese versions is better than the Pakistani knives and not even in the same league as the German and English.

hi there i pretty sure it is european or oriental made english made foldingbowies are push button not lever action here is some pics of mine made by w.h.wragg made in the late 1800;s early1900;