June 9, 2008
The Mercator K55K Cat Knife: My First Knife
I began to collect knives when I was about 6 years old. I was fortunate to have a mother who tolerated this hobby. She was big on flea markets and antique stores and used to drag me around with her. Even at that early age I was drawn to anything that had a blade.
I remember my first purchase was at a flea market. It was a heavily used thin black locking folder with a big cat on the handle. This knife was indestructible and withstood whatever I could throw at it. I remember tying it to the end of a stick and making a spear to catch catfish in our pond. I was also a fan of “The Dirty Dozen” and would throw that knife at most anything it would stick to. I loved that knife. You never forget your first knife.
Little did I know that some 38 years later (as a big kid) I would spend several hours at the Otter-Messer shop (the current maker of the Mercator knife) in Solingen, Germany filming the manufacturing process for my documentary.
Otter-Messer is a small three story brick building tucked behind a house in a residential area of Solingen. Walking through the doors is like stepping back in time. Besides the office that has phones, computers and fax machines the place has not changed much since the 1920s. There are some large motorized presses and the like, but much of the work is still done by hand. I was also impressed with the fact that they have a full time worker who checks every K55K by hand.
The K55K gained great popularity in the late 1940s early 1950s when American military personnel brought them back from the war. Some earlier examples were also brought back after the First World War, but at that time they did not really catch on.
The K55K is elegant in its simplicity. The economy of material and intelligent design has made it an incredibly popular knife. Previously I had thought this knife was created just prior to WWI. In doing archival research at The Industriemuseum in Solingen I found examples in catalogs that were from the mid 1800s. I assume that the design goes back even further.
You can see some documentary shorts about the K55K and the Otter-Messer factory at www.youtube.com by doing a search for “worldknives”.
