Club Obi Wan

Okay, I've been thinking, and looking. We know Indy's pocketknife has a spear-blade instead of clip-blade like most pocketknives today. We know it has jigged handles. The bolster was pretty flat. But, it should probably be a typical pocketknife circa the mid 1930's. With that in mind......

What I started looking for was essentially like an older boy-scout knife. But, without all of the extra blades. Boy scout knives have flat bolsters and spear blades, and are about the right size. The trick is finding like, but without screwdrivers, or awls, etc. We don't see the opposite end of the knife, so, we don't know if it has bolsters at both ends, or just one end. However, by looking at the shape of the handles, we can say that it is "even-ended", that there isn't a taper, or arc, etc., to the body... the scales have parallel edges. [Another knife that is similar, with a spear-blade, a flat bolster and jigged handles is akin to an older electrician's knife, which would be in keeping with Harry's past career as a carpenter, I think. But it would only have one bolster, too. And, most I've seen are too fat, having extra blades, though not all do. Anyway....]

I'd been checking lots of local places, no luck thus far. Case is a likely brand, I thought, but I'd yet to find one quite right. Case has a camp-knife that would've been right if it didn't have the extra blades. Anyway, losts of places have Case, and then some other knives too. But on Saturday, at a permanent indoor "flea market", after browsing lots of other booths full of mostly old Cases, at the last booth I visited, I found the closest that I've seen yet.

I think it's close. VERY close.




It's a Boker. The fella didn't know much about it, said it'd have to be at least 60 years old, that he hadn't seen another quite like it before. Spear blade, jigged handle, flat D-shaped bolsters, brass pins, narrow in width.

In an earlier thread, there was another knife that someone found from Germany, with a bolster on one end, is as screen-accurate as this one, maybe even more so for a couple of reasons, but, I think this one is closer to the actual knife.

Before the DVD's arrived, I'd have sworn that this was THE knife. Since we have the DVDs and can more closely scrutinize, I can pick out a few minor things that aren't quite perfect with it.

The biggest problem with this particular knife is that it is jigged black bone. In the tent, as he's opening the knife, you can see that his is stag, where it's lighter along the back edge and dark on the flats. [The knife in the other thread had stag scales, which is why I think it may be more screen-accurate.] If I could find another one of these knives with stag scales instead bone, that'd be better.
Oh, the other problem is, this is a 2-blade knife, with both blades on one end. In the same screen-shot, where the knife is being opened, the knife appears to be even thinner than this one, and would be thus be either a single-blade knife, or, it could be a 2-blade knife if the blades are on opposite ends. Regardless, I think this knife would be extremely likely to have been like the one in Indy's pocket. Perfect? Not quite.... So, I'm still looking. However, this one is close enough for most folks....

Oh...
And, talking with the fella, I have a couple of ideas on how to find something that might be even more accurate.... however, I'm gonna hold off going further there for the moment, 'til I can find something to show instead of just describing...


-L

That knife looks really good. It's darn near screen accurate. The blade looks really good and the handles are really really close.

A knife that old should have the correct stag horn as opposed to a new one bought today.

RonC wrote:At the time the movie was made, Hubertus (the company making this knife) was using Indian Sambar Stag for its scales...they are a little flatter than the ones on my knife. The company now uses European Red Stag for its scales (due to an embargo by the Indian government on Sambar Stag exports).

LNBright wrote: In an earlier thread, there was another knife that someone found from Germany...

RonC was the one who first found this knife. There were a few things that really sold it for me.

Pros:
1.) The pin placement on the knife match
2.) It appears that Indy is unlocking his knife from the rear.
3.) The size seems about right in the hand and it's the natural way to close this particular knife.

Cons:
1.) The blade is different at the base
2.) The stag horn is different.
3.) The metal part between the pins and the blade is slightly different.

I now own the knife pictured above Indy's and it's a great carry knife.



Keep up the good work,
Pyro.

The server I'm using has a fairly small size allowance, so I had to reduce the size a bit for posting.... Also, it blurred if I didn't use the flash, but if I did use the flash it would reflect off the blade so bad that all you would see was glare. And, I'm having a bit of perspective issues: in hand, it looks longer and more slender than it does in a photo of it sitting on the desk.

Thus it's hard to see that, the one I found has the same pin placement as the screen capture... there's a larger one along the back edge, and there's a smaller one closer to the bolster. If you look at the photo I posted carefully, you can pick it out. I'll try to get some better ones later, see if I can post a bit more detail. Not to be negatively critical, I think the bolsters on your knife are too close together.

In the same screen capture from the movie that you just posted, the bolster looks REALLY flat, which is what I was originally looking for. However, if you look at the other view, you can see that there is a slight amount of roundedness to the edges of it. And, in that same capture, I always thought it was a plain bolster, but going through it frame-by-frame, you can catch a few glints that are tell-tale that there is a groove across the bolster (like yours, and like the one I found).

I'm not convinced about the locking.... I hadn't noticed the thumb's particular position before in association with a locking release, I thought he was just holding the knife in a way to close it. I'll have to look at it again.....


Anyway, both are close. Not perfect, but, very close.


IMHO, FWIW......



-L

IT IS THE HURBERTUS KNIFE!
the bolster you see on the knife in the
movie is made by only that company.
If you look closley there are ridges at
the starting of the bolster and it it a perfectly
round bolster.
IT IS THE KNIFE! I own it!
Mola

Molorom wrote:IT IS THE HURBERTUS KNIFE!
the bolster you see on the knife in the
movie is made by only that company.
If you look closley there are ridges at
the starting of the bolster and it it a perfectly
round bolster.
IT IS THE KNIFE! I own it!
Mola

No need to shout there, Mola.....


Let's look at this.

the bolster you see on the knife in the movie which is difficult enough to see, even with a DVD going frame-by-frame, because most of those frames are blurry in-and-of themselves....

is made by only that company and many other knife makers, too.

Go look at Case, Boker, Queen, Pal, Ulster, there are MANY other knife makers with near-identical bolsters to each other.


If you look closley there are ridges at the starting of the bolster and it it a perfectly round bolster ... as are most other knives, too....


Mola, it may be a knife identical to that one by Hubertus. It might be one similar to it, made by Boker or some other company, it may be an electrician's knife, it may be something altogether different.... we just don't really *know*, do we? We can match it closely to the screen, we can make some educated guesses, but, as-of-yet, we don't *know*.

That's part of the fun, isn't it? Trying to figure it out?

-L

I honestly don't know much about the different styles on Pocket Knives. You two got me thinkin about learning all I can about it. Let me know what you all find As I start my research, I'll post what I come across.

Cheers,
Pyro

If you have Dish Network, you may have see the Smoky Mountain Knife Works show on 221. On there, they sell just about every type of knive imaginable.

I emailed them about Indy's knife and here' the response:

-----Original Message-----
From: chriskirk
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 9:16 AM
Subject: Fw: Fw: Indiana Jones' Knife


Nope, but it looks like an older Henckels or Puma pattern.
Steve

So, if any of you are searching, you may try these knife makers.

Pyro.