I found this Gerber MK-I "Hoffritz" Boot Knife today at a local pawn shop. I gave $30.00 for it.

5" blade, 9" overall.

It seems Hoffritz was a chain of cutlery shops and they would buy from quality makers and put their brand name on them and sell them in their stores. They are long gone though their name is used on a line of kitchen knives.

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That is good to know, that would have driven me crazy if I had found it.

But not now, knowledge is power!

$30 is a steal.  I think I paid more for that when I bought mine, in the late 80s.

Mine has the nylon sheath, though.

I have a Hoffritz branded Victorinox Swiss Army Knife. A German steel industry Exec who visited my dad in the 80's brought it to me as a gift. Cool.

I remember giving around $80 for the Mk I in the nylon sheath.

Yeah, early '80s dollars, so that would be $150-200 knife now.

It's a bit difficult to sharpen, but it keeps an edge really well once you do.

Yours looks to be in very good shape too. Great find.

Yeah, it took me quite a while with the google-fu to dig-up the info.

One sourse put my knife at being made between 1976 and 1980 due to the 5" blade (later ones had a 4.75" blade)  but that might not hold water if Hoffritz special ordered them.

Here is their flagship NYC store circa 1939. It was designed by the world famous architect Morris Lapidus who basically gave Miami Beach it's resort look back in the day.



The Fontainebleau in Miami Beach.



Funny how things overlap like that.

I have a rather large set of Hoffritz branded Henckel ice tempered Solingen kitchen knives that I put together for myself and my sister.  Family got me my first one as a college graduation present back in '84, when they were in all the malls.

They disappeared not long after that, towards the late 80s, IIRC.  I got to Miami in '85 and they were still in business in one of the local malls I frequented.

Quality stuff.

Chris