German Switchblade Knives
Hi "autoknife",
it is a great pleasure seing your new homepage and the information even in "old world's" German language. My compliments sharing your collection and the additional vintage printed matter.
I know that you are researching the history of both German and other countries' automatic knives and I trust that you have reliable sources for your your statement:
"The springer style knives have been manufactured in Germany since the early 1900's when an American, George Schrade patented the mechanism. It is said that he sold the patent to a German company."
This information does not match with several evidences:
Various push button patents invented by George Shrade can be researched easily both from the U.S. patent office and the German Office, but no single patent documentation shows up for him in regards to a lever lock mechanism. I have greatest respect in regards to George Schrade's inventions for the knife industry, but the information in regards to lever lock switchblades obviously is a rumor with no real background, it is just a story - and it is wrong.
Various vintage German sales catalogs dating to the the early 1900s show up such LL switchblade knives with a German patent number, which is related to a Solingen cutler and which was granted by the German Empire Patent Office already during the 1890s - and you sureley remember from the U.S. "Switchlade Newsletter" a historical BONSA advertisement dating that Solingen cutler's "Springmesser" to the 1870s.
I would change my view, if any records would show up with a dated documentation of George Schrade's contract for the sale of his invention or granting any rights in that matter to a German cutler, and I agree several avid and serious U.S. knife collectors' statements, that the lack of an original George Schrade marked lever lock switchblade obviously is the proof, that he was never involved in that mechanism.
Anyway enjoy collecting and researching such knives as I do, too!
Regards
cut