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Help! What is this that I have?
Can anyone tell me what this is? I found it over 30 years ago in upstate NY and it’s been in storage ever since. Thanks for any help!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Lars Ray on
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Well sir, from where I sit, that looks like a classic "no-brand" dagger from Japan - something used as a conversation piece or just fun to have. Works well for opening mail, popping balloons, chipping ice, and what not.
Based on this photo alone, it's hard to tell, but the edges look like they've seen some use.The handle looks to be single piece cast aluminum with plastic scales.
What can you tell us about it?
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Permalink Reply by Craig on
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Not much! I found it when I was a teenager and thought it was cool and when we just moved it reappeared from storage. Found it about 35-40 years ago. On the other side of blade it says romo j-104.
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Ahhh...well that helps!
ROMO stands for Rosenbaum & Mogul. They were an importer of inexpensive and mid-range knives based in New York. The J-104 is the model number. They had a pretty decent catalog of knives - hunting, fun (err....unique), folders, whatever the market would bear. The blades were almost always stainless steel. Think SZCO today.
35-40 years ago is about right. There are those who collect ROMO's today....it's a niche brand.
Hope this helps -
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Craig - if you do an internet search on ROMO knives you'll see a wide variety out there. Some of their mid-higher end knifes are from Germany. You should see quite a few stag handle Soligen Germany knives out there from ROMO. Their other steel source was from Japan (duh....you have one!). There is a good many stag handled knives from Japan too.
As an Importer, ROMO operated similar to Cole National in that they contracted several knife makers in Germany, England, and Japan to make their knives for them, then put their own branding on them. They also have quite a few folders.
If you are interested in learning more - do a ROMO search on places like Etsy along with Ebay. Etsy will typically give you more knife details than Ebay.
Sorry man - I do not have any details about Rosenbaum & Mogul specifically - like when they started, when they closed, dirt like that. There may be others here in iKC that know more....most usually do know more than me! :-D
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