I'd always wondered who made these F.Dula's, I came across a written article regarding this matter, it was in German so thanks to Bill Warda who did the translation we now know a little more on this subject.

Abridged Historical Version of Frevert's "Hunter's Blade..."

In his capacity as a high-ranking forestry official, Walter Frevert wished to bring new life to older hunting customs and traditions, towards this objective he wanted to develop a specialized hunting knife that could be used for a wide variety of purposes.

Together with Master-bladesmith and sword-finisher, Otto Dula, who had a modest workshop and retail store in Marburg, (on the Lahn River) that specialized in edged fighting and hunting weapons, Frevert developed a Standhauer, or heavy machete/Bowie-type knife, with a double-sharpened, lower blade edge and spine, towards the tip, thereby creating almost a right-angle effect, in the mid-1930s.

On a fundemental basis this new Hunter's Blade is closely related to the historically known Praxe, a hunting-weapon/tool having a wide, belly-like cutting edge, that is often portrayed as a hunting-knife or tool, used to free large pieces of game meat.

The unique identification features of this Hunter's Blade are best explained in the 'Gebrauchsmusterschutz' (patent-rights) description given to the German Patent Office on May 1936, for (registering) the "Hunter's Blade - to the specifications of - Walter Frevert."

1. The blade of such knife is widened towards the tip...
2. The blade of such Hunting knife is (also) thicker or rounder at the tip...
3. The handgrip is... very short and concise...

Because the Dula Company didn't have the capacity to produce a substantial number of examples, a deal was discussed with the Solingen firm of Richard Abraham Herder, but then the order was placed with the "Pocket-knife and Surgical Instrument Factory, J.E. Dittert" of Neustadt/Saxony, actually produced the order with the maker marking "F.Dula". Due to Second World War shortages, conscription and compulsive labor policies, only a very small number (of these) could be produced. After the war ended the patent-copyrights expired and a number of other producers were eager to add the (sought-after) "Hunter's Blade" to their product lines. In 1950 the Solingen factory of Carl Eickhorn produced an example having its blade marked, "Original Forstmeister Frevert," most likely due to the expired patent. In 1952 the Puma (blade-producing) company legally registered the word-marking "Forstmeister," and in 1956 the name, "Frevert.," thereby causing the Carl Eickhorn knives to be further marked as, "Hunting Knife Original Eickhorn Solingen". Before working together with Frevert, (before 1956) clearly, the Puma Company had copied the pattern and tooling for the Hunter's Blade. Their initial runs were just marked "Puma Werk Solingen * Made in Germany * Puma-Waidblatt * order number. 3588, therefore, without mention of "Forstmeister Frevert."

Dula/Dittert, Eickhorn and Puma were not the only manufacturers of the Hunter's Blade, there were other models that were either partialy or significantly based in form and style to their (forementioned) similar examples.


Gary