USSR knives, especially copyright ones, are always attractive for people who are fond of, because among them there are collectibles made by the hands of outstanding masters, blacksmiths, who can rightly be called great. Knives come in different configurations depending on the destination.
What is a knife?
The working part of the knife is a steel blade with a cutting blade. Dimensions and shapes depend on the destination. USSR knives were made of alloyed chrome, carbon and stainless steel, using the method of hot stamping, forging and mandatory heat treatment. Billets of bar metal through hot processing give a conical blade with a thinning of the blade gradually from the back.
This gives strength, facilitates sharpening, improving the quality that the knives of the USSR were famous for everywhere. Finishing was carried out first by grinding, then polishing, often galvanized with chrome and nickel. The blade is motionless, rigidly connected to the handle, and movable, that is, folding. So the view is determined: the knives of the USSR were made folding and awkward.
Clumsy knives
Fixed blade knives are canteens, pantries, household, gastronomic, trade and craft. Clumsy knives from the times of the USSR were produced all-metal, they were made from a workpiece immediately with a handle, or compound - with handles made of plastic, wood or other metal.
The most expensive - collection ones - were made with handles made of horn, bone, jet and other non-metallic expensive materials. The USSR table knives were made of carbon steel of grades 70G, 65G, 60G, 70, 65, 60, U8A, U7A, U8, U7, after heat treatment they had a hardness of 48-56 Rc. Table knives were very often made of stainless steel grades 3X13 and 4X13 in the same heat treatment.
The form
They had various forms: straight, shaped, wide, narrow, with a notch on the forearm (back) and without it. Blades of table knives almost always have double-sided protrusions at the junction with the handle, which protect the tablecloth from contamination.
There were four types of table knives produced in the USSR: large table (SB) - up to 250 millimeters, medium table, that is, dessert (SS) - up to 215 mm, and children's, that is, small table (SM) - up to 170 mm. On sale, they were both piecewise and complete with forks. Very popular were sets of cutlery and buffet for six and twelve people.
Side knives
These are serving knives - for cheese, butter, fruit, smoked meats, lemon. Their assortment is huge. For bread and lemon, a knife saw with a serrated or wavy blade is used, and for lemon - purely stainless steel. For cheese - with a straight blade and a chamfer, the blade is often equipped with a fork - three horns on a wide blade. For fruits - with a sharp tip of the blade. To divide the birds into portions, special knives were made. A very whimsical appearance knife for sandwiches with caviar.
The USSR’s buffet knives photo below will demonstrate almost in full. They were made in the Soviet Union, both forged and cold stamped, the pens were the most diverse. Cupronickel knives were covered with a thin layer of silver. In addition to serving, household knives occupied a special position - they differ in size and even in the material from which they were made. Their handles were most often made of hardwood with special moisture-resistant impregnation.
Folding knives
The USSR folding knife was designed for travel, hiking, just to be carried in your pocket in case of need. It consists of hinged knife blades and useful household items, also hidden in the handle, including a corkscrew, scissors and other manicure accessories, an awl, a bottle opener and much more that could come in handy for a person on the way. The folding knife of the USSR is compact, convenient, therefore it is very popular. What kind of folding knives the population had! They were used by everyone - from schoolchildren to sophisticated bohemians.
In addition to general purpose pocket knives, there were apprenticeship, ladies, collective farms, traveling, construction, garden, art … You could only subdivide them according to the type of attachment: single-barrel - when all objects are attached to the handle from one end, and end - when the knife was opened from both ends. In them, some items were even retractable - tweezers, toothpicks and so on. A corkscrew and an awl were usually fastened in the middle of the handle for convenience.
The finish was different. Folding knives were made both collectible and almost precious, and inexpensive, with a poor finish. Ladies', of course, looked more whimsical, with mother of pearl and inlays.
Penknives
The USSR lived without electronic devices, so the boys played other games, often associated with both risk and gaining courage. For example, Soviet children loved the game of knives. Almost everyone had one - under the name "pen", but, of course, no one repaired the feathers with them.
Knives flew into tree trunks, into wooden poles, and the doors too, at worst, the goal is not bad. Even a special game was where zones were drawn in a circle, and an abandoned knife had to stick into a specific place.
Boy's dream
The knife "Squirrel" was especially well suited for this purpose. The USSR cared about the happy childhood of its future defenders, because there were many modifications of penknives. Parents often bought them for business: the Squirrel was quite popular among tourists, fishermen, and various kinds of hunters.
But would you deny your son who is fascinated by this rather complicated construction, and in his eyes his dream is to hold, stroke at least a running squirrel of molded plastic on the grip plates … By the way, there were not only Squirrels, but also Panthers, and "Foxes" and "Leopards". Generations of the sixties and seventies, yearning for childhood, often regret that now they do not make such knives already.
HB
It is not difficult to decipher this abbreviation - a diving knife. Products of this plan were used very widely in any industrial underwater work. The diving knife of the USSR is represented among the rest of the assortment of such products, it is rather small only because the total number of underwater operations is small. However, there is plenty to choose from. First of all, it is HB - under this brand knives with a relatively narrow blade were produced - 28 millimeters, their length - 172 millimeters. The butt is made with a bevel of type "pike".
They have one main and one false blade, where the bevel is. There are sections in the root part where sharpening is absent. A blade without a cross, as the purpose of such a knife is to cut ropes, cables that interfere with work. The knife is not for a fight, it is not adapted to stabbing. The blade was not covered with special compounds, but was made of anti-corrosion steel. The scabbard for such a knife is required, mounted on a belt, usually made of brass. Specially adapted for twisting the knife out of them without the help of a second hand.
Anti-sabotage knife "Moray"
A slightly more modern diving knife. The USSR is a country in which knives of another modification were most often used, this one is given for comparison. Designed for divers guarding our military bays from divers swimmers. With this knife you can cut not only ropes of any thickness, hoses and algae, but also cut metal rods of barriers up to fifteen millimeters. There must be different tempering of the blade for this purpose: the cutting blade is tempered as usual to 56, and a saw for metal requires a minimum of 68 Rockwell units. However, such technologies have not yet been mastered. Another solution to the problem was found - a hacksaw blade is attached to the knife.
The dimensions of the product are impressive, the thickness of the blade - even more so, but such a knife is not a cold weapon for civilians. The most difficult to use a diving knife is the scabbard, there are too many diving tasks for the equipment of a diver. The knife should be at hand, with reliable fastening, easy to remove, and at the same time not interfere with swimming and movement along the bottom. So far, it has not been possible to come up with a really convenient diving knife. This one is too heavy and uncomfortable, like everyone else.
Hunting
The oldest hunting weapon is a knife. Now, at the time of the triumph of the firearm, the hunter most often comes in handy as a cutting knife - for peeling the carcass, but not so long ago, several decades ago, hunting knives were almost the only necessity in the taiga. The USSR was a country of vast expanses, and there were plenty of hunting grounds, even those where the foot of a person rarely stepped. The knife was not only a weapon to finish off a wounded animal, but also for attack, and even more so for self-defense. A lot in those days were people with scars from the teeth and claws of a bear. And many were saved only by hunting knives.
The USSR was also an industrial power. Steel, including for cold steel, was brewed according to the best technologies. Nevertheless, the choice is not as simple as it seems. Some are for finishing off prey, others are necessary to skin and carve, there are also multifunctional ones suitable for hunters who are not professionally engaged in this. Those who live hunting cannot do without one knife. Mass production will not master the best hunting knives; craftsmen make them manually. The manufacture is complicated, expensive. Damask steel, for example, used to go exclusively to military weapons. Now it is often found on hunting.
