Lion Navaja
 

Hello All, just picked up a reasonably sized, elderly Navaja with a lion trademark on the blade. I'm hoping that someone here who has more knowledge of these knives may be able to tell me something about the maker.

I have some pic's of the knife which I'll put up when I've reduced the image sizes.

More pic's.
Overall length open is 32 cm (12.6 inch) with 15 cm (6 inch) blade.

A French mark for sure. Maybe not famous, though; not listed in Forton's work.
Let us then see the whole piece, Mel :cool: .

Fernando, thank you for pointing me in the right direction, I've now done a little searching. It seems that Au Lion did have a moment of fame, they contracted to produce the first U.S. mod 1918 trench knives ( now much sought after ), there doesn't seem to be a lot of information on the maker.

Au Lion is the trademark of R. V. Cruege of Bordeaux (Gironde), per The Who's Who of French Arms from 1350 to 1970 by Jean-Jacques Buigné.

Thank you.

Hi Folks,

Great detective work and Happy new Year everybody!

Cheers
Chris

I'd stick a ~1 in. solid or split key ring thru the hole to help raising the lock, like mine:

I like these knives, I have some other larger old ones. I've got a some split spring rings in my toolbox but they're brand new and don't look quite right, I'll keep an eye open for one with some age and patina.

Here's one of my older Navajas.

Now. that's a really nice and colectable piece - Congratulations!

Cheers
Chris

Some detail Wayne doesn't seem to mind of, though !

Mine have the rings they came with, the Okapi and Kudo ones are recent tho. The others are older, the small one is quite old. The other is one made in Germany before they licensed them to South Africa to become the Okapi.

Navaja
 

I have a navaja which might have a lion mark on the blade,thought you might like to see it.if it's not the same as the lion navaja perhaps you could identify it for me .thanks

Patina can be achieved on steel by a day or two soak in a thick paste made with instant coffee.

Add a dash of hydrogen peroxide to jazz it up.

I've already dropped a couple into a damp flower pot in the garden, it'll probably do the job in a couple of weeks but you can never be sure with modern spring steels.

Amazing ! why not spending a few more bucks and buy the real antique thing, instead of testing these alchemist schemes ? :rolleyes: :eek: .

Referring back to my earlier post, I did say I'll keep an eye open for one with some age and patina. It's not a great priority at the moment. ( I'm just in the process of opening a new bottle of single malt to help bring in the New Year in quarter of an hour or so ) :)
Best wishes to all.

Lew had quite a collection of these as well, both old and new:

Back to the original question the Au Lion ( Au Lion/Société Généralee) was also contracted to produce the first batches of 1918 trench knives for thUS Army in WW1.

And Happy New Year to all :)

Difficult to read the mark on your navaja, cookyboy1. Could you improve the pictures; or tell us what are those letters ?

I did it with a bottle of chilled Spanish Cava ;).

Happy new year :cool:.