Shed or production knife

I bought this little knife(3.3/4inch x 0.5inch), with cyrilic insignia on both sides and would appreciate any help on identifying it

 

It does appear a bit hand crafted. Congratulations on some decent pictures.

 

Thanks for some positive critique.
I appreciate it either way.

 

If it was hand crafted, itwas engraved manually, then dipped in coating

 

I'm seeing a Soviet pocket knife with a stamped design, the price (80 kopeks) on one side and the factory mark on the other...

~Cheryl

 

That would sound logical, only the side with factory insignia contains letter Ћ(soft ch) which kind of narrows it down...

 

It looks too simple for soviet era product from former Yugoslavia even. I have seen stuff made imediately after the war and it had very flat regular folding knife look.

 

My eyesight isn't what it used to be, but I'm not really seeing a 'Ћ' anywhere - one side clearly says 'Ц80К', indicating 'Цена 80 Копейки (Price 80 Kopeks), the other side looks like maybe a 'В', perhaps conjoined with another letter, hard for me to tell.

Not really sure what you mean by "too simple"...

~Cheryl

 

DW please forgive me if my photos do not tell all the story. I am trying to improve on that front. What you cannot sse on the photo is that the letter B(which is V in cyrilic) is placed (conjoined) inside capital letter Ћ. This is the letter that isn't in russian alphabet.By too simple I meant that the knife construction is not complex, it is one blade put inside a twisted metal sheet

 

Will have to take your word on the 'Ћ', I just see a 'В' hanging from a gallows.

A seller in Lithuania has a few similar to yours, calls them 'Soviet', and seems to think they're from the '70s and 'Rare!' (just having so many would seem to discount their rarity)...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Soviet-USSR-Russian-Metal-Folding-Camping-Pocket-Knife/111838483151?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIC.MBE&ao=1&asc=34494&meid=4da26e4e56b046c08b2d055d8e159092&pid=100011&rk=3&rkt=10&sd=111818509975

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Soviet-Original-Collectible-Metal-Folding-Camping-Pocket-Knife-about-70-/111788080569?hash=item1a0716bdb9:g:K9gAAOSwFnFWD85G&nma=true&si=UpSDAzFkOKX667TL9gimJiWOfYo%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Soviet-Original-Collectible-Metal-Folding-Camping-Pocket-Knife-about-70/111838483214?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIC.MBE&ao=1&asc=34494&meid=1700b94ce1894ced90792d4cb832c394&pid=100011&rk=2&rkt=10&sd=111788080569

Apparently, lots of rust makes it from the '60s and worth $5. more: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Soviet-Original-Collectible-Metal-Folding-Camping-Pocket-Knife-about-60/121835344168?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIC.MBE&ao=1&asc=34494&meid=1700b94ce1894ced90792d4cb832c394&pid=100011&rk=4&rkt=10&sd=111788080569

This one, also described as '60s', bears the same mark, and is decorated with a 'CCCP' (USSR) as well as a hammer & sickle: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Ori...492344?hash=item1a0a17f6b8:g:ZpkAAOSwjVVVjR1E

~Cheryl

 

Visited the pages... Looks like it is the same sign as on my knife.
I am puzzled. If it is Soviet, which probably is, it is not likely that a makers mark is any letter on the gallows. Now that I am looking closely, there is a dot on top of mark . It looks that the sign is made of 3 letters: j, B, and another letter(probably Д)

 

I find these knives overpriced.

 

It was a curious thing about the USSR's command economy that the price of an item was so solidly fixed that it would be incorporated into a metal design. So many Soviet era items that we see are easily so diagnosed by the price built into the label design, including backstamps on ceramics.

 

This may not help, but I found this Russian Knifemakers Guild site:

Gallery: http://rusartknife.org/gallery/

Main page: http://rusartknife.org/

The marks in the gallery look modern to me -- also, they may be more for weaponry than pocket knives.. I haven't tried to decipher most of it but I know you are familiar with Cyrillic.

 

Thanks for the sites!
I will study it. I hope my russian is still operational.

 

Why would they engrave the price on the knife? Prices change. I see normal numbers and don't think 480K means the price. I also see a large A with a flat top, a t and a B.

 

No free market in the Soviet Union, and that's a typical Soviet price mark - 80 Kopeks was the price everywhere the item was sold, if the production cost changed, the next batch would be priced and marked accordingly...

~Cheryl

 

That is truth. And the russians didnt put price only on cheap stuff. I just bought a pair of юmet filigran work hot glass holders
that have factory stamped price of 30 rubls

 

Hmmmmm....getting an economics lesson here.....velly intellisting... I like it!!!!!

 

if the production cost changed, the next batch would be priced and marked accordingly...

Probably not. More likely they would send the production manager to clean toilets in a tractor factory in Novy Sibersk. The system depended on all input and output prices being controlled.

One way of doing this was to lie about your finances. Many Soviet era enterprises had accounts that were largely works of fiction. Other ways were to degrade the product or fail to pay the workers. It is really not surprising it all fell apart so fast when it did.

Some raw material producers were in fact selling into the system well below market prices. It is not surprising that when these state emterprises were sold off after the Soviet era, the commisars who bought then for a fraction of their value in world prices suddenly became the Russian billionaires we know and love today.

It is also not surprising that when you have had 50 years of trading for profit being a criminal activity, many of the new traders were former criminals and the ones that did best from it were the former biggest criminals.