UBB.threads Forums Thread Like Summary - F Dula with a twist

O.K mad Limey alert,
Some of you guys know what a F Dula is others will not, I believe these were first seen in advertisements in the German hunting magazines around 1935 so fairly early in the period, I also have reference to them in Deutsche Jägerschaft(DJ) publications up to 1942, quite who were allowed to wear them is unknown I believe as I have not seen any period reference as to the rules of their wear. If anybody has any information or knows who made them I would love to see it. It is assumed by some who know of these knives that they were made by the firm of Lauterjung & Sohn (Puma), this is probably because they made a set very similar to this post war along with both Eickhorn and Hubertus.
So what is an F.Dula, below is the way they are normally seen, whilst I say normally, I doubt that there are more than 10 sets known within our little community possibly only half that.

Gary and other posters on this thread. Believe me I'm more frustrated than you are.. I have to find a outlet to get the information out there and yet keep the VALUE of what I have collected . That is complicated and time consuming. Would collectors buy a series of factual articles or books???
Gary I will no longer post on a thread if I'm not willing to share ALL the information I have on that subject..

P.S. I do not have information on how knives were marked by F. Dula after 1945

Careful over what James, I've disclosed nothing other than you sent me a page from your files, I haven't released any detailed information from that page, you know if you send me anything I will not disclose any details from it.
I don't think we are playing a game here, how would I know what year Dula stopped making knives or went out of business, if it's not on the Internet or readily available for viewing then I would have to guess and probably be wrong, you are the only person on the planet that can answer those questions.

I fully understand just how much time, effort and money you have spent amassing your reference material but if your not going to at least provide the basic information then what is the point in collecting this reference or even even mentioning it in the first place, it's very frustrating that you tantalise us with these questions knowing full well that we do not know the answer, only you can decide how much you are willing to release publically and with all real collectors it's never about the money, you know this, I don't give a damm about what things cost, for me reference material is all about sharing and advancing the hobby so we can all learn so unless you are going to reproduce and sell the copies to collectors we are going to go around in circles and I don't want to play those games especially when these knives and their history is so important to me.

Please remember that as far as I know Freidrich Dula only produced the blades and the knife was put together by JE Dittert out of Marburg so I presume that if Dula was producing blades after the war then could he not have been producing the blades for any number of companies, perhaps these other companies who assembled these knives preferred to have their name on the blade so unless you have that kind of information then it's pure conjecture that he produced Dula's after the war with his name on it. Do you have the information that he produced and marked Waidblatts with his name post war?? did he make them to exactly the same specification??, if you have that sort of information I think you should at lease provide us with the specifics.

You have to do something with all this reference material you have, you cannot just hoard this, you even mention that it can be upsetting if the information is not on the internet, it's about as frustrating as it gets for me knowing that the information is within my grasp but it's never going to be disclosed, I know you understand just how important your reference files could be, the balls in your court, we have been through this many times and yet you still amass more and more and do nothing with it that I know of, I am more than willing to pay for the information I need about these knives if that's what you want.

Gary

Here's a scan from a 1966/67 catalouge showing Eickhorns products.

DULA family grave site from the Find A Grave web site. I would believe that Oberstleutnant a.D. Hans Friedrich Dula (1913-1992), was Otto Dula's son?

Otto Dula
BIRTH
unknown
DEATH
unknown
BURIAL
Hauptfriedhof Marburg
Marburg, Landkreis Marburg-Biedenkopf, Hessen, Germany

Marie Dula
BIRTH
unknown
DEATH
unknown
BURIAL
Hauptfriedhof Marburg
Marburg, Landkreis Marburg-Biedenkopf, Hessen, Germany
Inscription
ZUM GEDENKEN AN
OTTO UND MARIE
DULA


Oberstleutnant a.D. Hans Friedrich Dula
BIRTH
18 Apr 1913
DEATH
23 Nov 1992 (aged 79)
BURIAL
Hauptfriedhof Marburg
Marburg, Landkreis Marburg-Biedenkopf, Hessen, Germany

Alwine von der Heyde Dula
BIRTH
9 May 1917
DEATH
10 Mar 2011 (aged 93)
BURIAL
Hauptfriedhof Marburg
Marburg, Landkreis Marburg-Biedenkopf, Hessen, Germany



C. Wetzel-20609, contributor on the Find A Grave web site.

This Waidblatt was once in my collection, i have owned 12 sets in the past.

Ger

Gents this post is about F.Dula's, would be nice to keep it that way.
I think these post war Waidbestecke do not do justice to the beauties Gary posted.
My suggestion would be to start a separate post for these post war knives.

Best
Ger

Yes, they did use green thread and green dyed leather, sun and use bleaches it to the original brown leather colour.
Here you see the back is still greenish with green thread while its front has no green left at all after years of use/sunlight.

Cheers,
Ger

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