In the 1970s, a young engineer named Vladimír Trojan knocked on the door of the director’s office at the Mikov state-owned enterprise. He had spent a sleepless night in the workshop, and his fatigue was evident. The director was used to these early morning visits, as Vladimír usually worked on new products through the night.
This time, however, the director noticed his unusual nervousness as he handed him a knife, which he had just opened by simply pressing a small lever on the handle. Surprised, he rose from his heavy mahogany desk, took the knife in his hand, tested the closing mechanism and the perfectly functioning ejection mechanism, nodded approvingly, and said, “Vladimir, this is good—we’ll put this into production.” Trojan’s fears that no one would allow such a knife to be manufactured in socialist Czechoslovakia vanished. He immediately headed enthusiastically from the director’s office to his workshop and, despite having stayed up all night, immediately set to work on the next phase.
That’s probably what the first presentation of the switchblade knife—which we know today as the Predator—looked like. Vladimír Trojan had been carrying this idea in his head the entire time he worked in Mikov’s development department. When he joined the company in the late 1950s, as a trained cutler and knife enthusiast, his head was full of ideas and suggestions for improvement. This didn’t go unnoticed at the factory, so he was soon promoted to lead the development workshop, where he drew and designed all of Mikov’s knives. A switchblade knife—now that was something else entirely.
He thought about it for a long time. He knew that the factory had produced switchblades before the war, but the German veterans who had remained in Mikulášovice after the expulsion and had been involved in their production remained silent. There were also no drawings or jigs available. Therefore, he saw it as a challenge to find the right design so that the knife would be easy to handle, wouldn’t endanger its owner by opening spontaneously, and at the same time could be easily mass-produced. The knife he brought to the director’s desk was, of course, not the first version he had tried, but it was the first functional one.
Once production was approved, the usual process followed: designing jigs for cutting out the blades, forging the liners, and developing handle designs so they could be made from plastic as well as rare woods, antlers, or other expensive materials. Then came the training of production staff, and the knife was launched on the market.
It immediately gained a following. Its robust construction, modern design for its time, and safe handling were its major selling points. The knife became very popular not only in the Czech Republic but also abroad—literally from east to west. It even learned to overcome restrictions—since its standard blade was illegal in Russia, it began to be exported there with a shorter blade. In U.S. states that ban the sale of switchblades, it was shipped without the spring, which buyers who didn’t mind breaking local laws could purchase separately.
The Predator’s moment in the spotlight came in connection with James Bond. When the production team for the *Casino Royale* episode, which was filmed in Prague, needed a switchblade, they apparently went to the nearest Prague knife shop and bought a Predator. However, the actor handling the knife had to turn it so that the Mikov logo was not visible. As a result, instead of the Mikov logo, all viewers of the film saw the knife-maker’s mark of Vladimír Trojan, which was on the other side of the blade. The mechanism of every knife must function flawlessly; if the handle is made of natural material, it must be customized for each individual piece. James Bond’s knife was made of Damascus steel, which requires great care from the master cutler, who leaves his signature on it.
To this day, the Predatory series remains among Mikov’s most distinctive and popular knives. That’s one reason why they’ve undergone updates in recent years, with the Blackout and Stonewash series switching to Bohler N 690 steel for the blades. Customer interest continues to exceed expectations.
The Predator also inspired the Rescue knife, whose flip-open mechanism allows firefighters to open it while wearing gloves.
Although there are many other switchblade knives on the market today, the Predator still has its devoted fans who swear by it. For many of them, it serves as an EDC—an everyday carry knife.