Drop knife
Drop knives are a special type of knife in which the blade hidden in the knife handle falls out of the handle due to gravity or a slinging motion and locks.
The dealing with case knives is banned in Germany after the Arms Act , Appendix 2 (Weapons List), Section 1, paragraph 1.4.1 and Appendix 1, Section 1, Subsection 2, no. 2.1. The law grants exceptions for the armed forces, police, customs administration and other authorities. Another exception are drop knives that meet certain characteristics of a rescue knife . These have been classified as tools by the Federal Criminal Police Office and can be owned and operated by anyone.
Aviator's cutting knife
history
During the Second World War , drop knives (so-called Flieger-Kappmesser ) were used by German aircraft crews, paratroopers and soldiers of the 1st Skijäger Division . Above all, the Air Force personnel should be able to cut themselves out of their harnesses after a parachute jump even under the most adverse conditions and if necessary with just one free hand. These special drop knives were developed in 1936 by the "Solinger Metallwarenfabrik - Ernst Stöcker & Co." However, there were two other World War II manufacturers in Solingen and Steinbach / Thuringia. In a similar design, it was also used by the paratroopers of the National People's Army and in the German Armed Forces until around the end of the 1960s , where it was in use until 2017.
Functionality and origin of the name
The aviator's chopping knives were manufactured in 1937 on behalf of the military by various knife blade companies in Solingen in different variations, such as blue or shiny nickel surfaces, removable or not, they were all the same in their functional principle. The knife is designed to be used with one hand to meet all emergency needs. To extend the blade, the locking lever is opened and pressed to release the spring tension of the blade. By turning the knife downwards, the blade slides out of the handle, where it is locked in position by releasing the locking lever. This way the blade slipped into position led to the classification and designation drop knife ("gravity knife"). The official name, however, was a knife. With the blade extended, the knife measured 25.5 cm. On the back there was a rotating ring for fastening to prevent the knife from being lost if it fell. Into the handle was Pricker "folded" with which the strap spliced was where the paratroopers hung after his parachute had opened. The knife had a protective cap on the end. Simple wooden handles were attached to both sides of the metal blade. The locking lever clamped the locking spring.
literature
- Dietmar Pohl: knife of German special forces . Motorbuch, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 978-3-613-02526-4 , p. 12-20, 40, 41, 44-49, 81-86 (192 pp.).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Weapons Act (WaffG), Appendix 2 (to Section 2 Paragraphs 2 to 4) Weapons List. Retrieved September 10, 2018 .
- ↑ Determination notice of the BKA on the classification of rescue knives. BKA, August 28, 2003, accessed July 3, 2020 .
- ↑ Wolfgang Peter-Michel: The drop knife of the German Air Force: technology and development of the flying cap knife / . Norderstedt: Books on Demand, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8482-6543-5 .
- ↑ Brüning, Jan-Peter: The aviator's cutting knife: weapon, tool, tradition . Self-published, Stuttgart 2019 ( ww2wrecks.com ).
- ↑ John R. Angolia: Daggers, bayonets and fighting knives of Hitler's Germany . Utility knife. RJ Bender Publishing, 1971, ISBN 978-0-912138-06-0 , pp. 301 .
