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The granddaddy of all the now Puma knifes: W.Frevert’s design Waidblatt, one of the first dozen prototypes made in 1936 by the knifemaker F. Dula, Marburg.

The chief forester Walter Frevert, 1897 – 1962, was a prominent hunting expert during the 1930s to 50s, author of the authoritative book “Das jagdliche Brauchtum” = Hunting Traditions. Besides many of those “traditions” he also invented his “Waidblatt”, a big utility knife for applying the coup de grace to wounded red deer and wild boar without endangering the dogs with shooting. Frevert protected his design by a DRGM.
The shape of the Puma knives is a combination of design progression, company relations and advertising. I have to delve into the Frevert-Dula-Puma history a bit. Soon after the start of production Frevert and Dula had the idea to give the Nicker = gutting knife of the Waidbesteck the same, distinctive blade outline protected with the DRGM: wider near the about 90 degree point. Dula's production capacities did not meet demand from the start. Unsuccessful in Solingen, the German cutlery capital, Dula had the knifes made by a company in Neustadt on Saale, E. Dittert. The sheaths were bought in from the saddlery Hruby in Hachenburg. After 6 years, 1942, the DRGM protection of the design expired. So everybody was free to copy the design, but WW2 was going on. After 1945 most of these unusual, big and decorative knives were surrendered and "liberated". Many reside now in US collections. After 1950 Germans were allowed to hunt again and a new demand for Waidblatts set in. Now Solingen firms jumped in and offered close copies of the original design: First the Carl Eickhorn company, Solingen, offered clones. The early Eickhorns came in metal clad sheaths. In 1976 Eickhorn was no more, the tooling bought up by Kuno Ritter, "Hubertus" cutlery company, who continued to offer the "Hubertus Waidblatt".
About the same time like Eickhorn the PUMA-Werke, Lauterjung & Co, Solingen, started to offer uninscribed copies. Apparently they had an arrangement with Frevert, as by 1956 PUMA had protected the words "Forstmeister", "Frevert" and "FREVERT" as cutlery trademarks.
As Frevert was still regarded as the foremost hunting expert by German hunters then, Puma (and Frevert?) decided to capitalize on the name. Puma offered a whole series of hunting knives, all with the distinctive "Frevert" blade shape and etched on the blade "nach Forstmeister Frevert". There was not only the "Waidblatt" and the small "Nicker zum Waidbesteck"(about the same size as the “Hunter’s Pal” shown above), but also a larger "Försternicker", a "Hochwildnicker" for big game, and some folders advertized as "Frevert design". Up to the 1990s Puma used the "Nach Forstmeister Frevert", later "nach Oberforstmeister Frevert", inscription on knives approved by him until his death in 1962. By then the distinctive "Frevert" blade shape had become something like a Puma trademark itself. So that shape was used on their "White Hunter" and it's variants, the "Automesser" with wood grips, "pilot survival knife", "Alpine Outdoor", variations thereof with plastic grips and serrated edges and so on. For some time they had a model "Rüdemann" = bloodhound handler too, shaped similar to the Waidblatt, but in size about halfway in between Waidblatt and White Hunter.

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