Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian, I am here today at the Rock Island Auction Company
taking a look at some of the ... knives,
and guns that are coming up for sale
in their April of 2016 Premier Auction.
Most of the time when I have run across
combination knife and gun weapons,
they're usually kind of crap at both.
They're not very good guns and they're not very
good knives either, because people are
trying to mash the two into a single unit.
This one really kind of jumped out at me in that
it seems to be actually a pretty decent knife, and not that bad of a gun either.
So I wanted to pull this out and show you guys, because really it is pretty cool and impressive.
... We've looked at things like the Elgin cutlass-pistol before, really a kludge.
This one seems a lot more interesting, a lot more practical.
So why don't I bring the camera back, and let's take a closer look at this.
So ... one of the first things that I noticed
was that this could almost pass as a regular bayonet / knife type of object.
It actually has a sheath that is reasonably practical,
it's pretty wide here because you've got two pistol barrels under it.
But ... you could actually get away with this,
and that's kind of unusual in the knife-gun sorts of weapons.
Alright, now when we draw this out of its sheath you can see that there are two barrels,
one fixed to each side of the blade. These are smoothbore barrels.
And then the ... cocking and the firing mechanism is really well ... hidden inside this [assembly].
If we first consider this as just a knife, we have a pretty darn good grip to it.
You've got a nice pommel that you can use to hit someone, if you need to.
You actually have a nice, reasonably functional, cross-guard on it.
The front of the blade has been sharpened by somebody.
But these two barrels don't really hinder its effectiveness as a knife,
because you have about two thirds of this blade still available.
If anything you've got a little bit more of a cross-guard here,
you could stop or block something with the muzzles of those barrels.
Now the other cool thing is where the actual firing mechanism is,
because there's nothing really protruding out of the way on this gun.
Well, both of the top pieces of the cross-guard are hidden hammers.
And when you cock the one on the right, a trigger drops down out of the assembly.
And we can cock the other one as well.
So you would load both barrels with a ramrod, you'd put on percussion caps.
And then once you've got the action cocked
the grip isn't nearly as good as the knife grip,
but you do have a grip fairly reminiscent of a small concealable pistol here.
Because ... the back of the pommel curves down like this,
you've got enough material to actually grip, and you can hold this reasonably effectively.
Now the trigger actually fires both of these simultaneously.
So if you want to fire two shots at the same time, cock both hammers.
Otherwise what you would do is simply cock one at a time.
Cock that one back, fire it.
When you need a second shot, you cock the second hammer and fire it.
The bottom cross-guards look the same, they don't go anywhere, they're solid.
Alright, now there is one significant safety issue here.
And that is if you are going to carry this actually loaded and capped,
when this hammer is down it's resting directly on the percussion cap.
There's no rebounding safety, there's no half-cock notch, nothing like that.
So this is the equivalent of carrying a cap and ball revolver
with the hammer resting on a loaded chamber.
It won't go off just because you accidentally jiggle it or something.
But any significant impact to the cross guard,
like say getting in a knife fight with it,
any significant impact would detonate the percussion cap and fire the barrel.
So, it's unfortunate, they didn't quite get it perfect,
because you do have that safety issue.
However, aside from that, it's actually remarkably ...
I hate to say this, it's actually remarkably practical for a combination gun.
Alright, I'm recording this as a voiceover because ... long after I'd left the auction house
and just before this video was ready to post,
it was pointed out to me what this thing might actually be.
And that is a Norwegian postal worker's sidearm.
And that was too cool and weird of a story for me to not take a look at.
So it turns out, in the early 1800s the Norwegian postal service
had suffered kind of this rash of armed robberies, including several dead mail men.
And in 1837 they decided to start (it's a little unclear) either arming the postmen
or sending armed guards with them.
And these guys were at first armed with sabres and pistols.
However, in 1846 they decided to start making a combination gun,
a bladed, 2 barrelled pistol, weapon, [M.1846 Postførerverge].
The examples I have since found in ... pictures online of museum collections
look virtually identical to this weapon.
So I think this might actually be the same thing.
These were made from 1846 until 1854 at the Kongsberg Arsenal,
and they only made 152 of them.
Now, ... the ones that are known to exist actually have serial numbers,
and dates of manufacture, and proof marks on the sides of the cross guards.
So ... the little circular profile at the top and bottom, those had markings.
And I don't see any markings like that on this example.
But it's possible that they've been removed,
it's also possible that this is just a really closely made copy.
I don't know if Kongsberg made any of these for commercial sale, maybe that's possible.
I can't explain it, I don't know for sure.
However, that story of what this might be:
an 1846 Norwegian postal worker's weapon was too cool,
and it fits the description of this thing just way too well
for me not to go back, edit the video, add in this, just to bring it up to date.
The sheath here, ... it's a leather sheath, and it's got some wood inset
to hold the shape of two barrels and the blade.
And of course metal reinforcing up at the throat.
And it's got a metal tip to it as well, very much a bayonet style of sheath.
Oh, and of course you've got these two hooks for securing to a belt, or a bandoleer of some sort.
Thanks for watching guys, I hope you enjoyed the video.
As I mentioned, ... I have no idea where it came from,
I don't know who made it, all I know is it's actually pretty cool.
And it's a good example of how to, I think, do a much better job of a combination knife and gun
that isn't total crap at being both a knife and a gun.
If you'd like to add this one to your own collection,
probably just fine to shoot honestly, and certainly looks cool.
Anyway, take a look at the description text below,
you'll find a link to Rock Island's catalogue page on it.
You can take a look at their pictures and description.
And if you like what you see, you can place a bid right there through their website.
Thanks for watching.