Short Review of a Hartkopf Solingen traditional pen knife

Testing out the Hartkopf Solingen pen knife. Frighteningly sharp out of the box, ace for feathersticking, with a really secure backlock, lovely, beautiful ebony handle with nickle silver bolster and badge. Comes with a sharp spine. Blade is 79x2,4 mm, full flat grind to almost zero (0,3 above the edge). Steel is 1.4116 , full quench, hardness 56-58 HRC (claimed). After an hour of carving aged maple and chestnut it still shaved. The handle is a bit small if you really apply force, but fact is, you do not need to, because it is just so sharp. The knife obviously is not a bushcraft knife and I would not do silly stuff like batoning with it, of course. But it is really light and laser sharp, so chance is, you will have it on you. It is also really beautiful and doesn't scream "tactical" on top of its lungs. It is a grampa knife in the best sense of the word. Whittling, snacking, even lighting a fire or using it for a good steak or good products for a "casse-crôute", you name it. I do not think it will cause you any problems with the police, too. It is perfectly legal in Germany and, being that beautiful, it is not the typical theatre of social warfare knife, either. I keep it in the leather pouch in my pocket in order not to scratch the beautiful scales anyway. If you understand the concept of a pocket knife, I can only recommend it. What it is not, is a sharpened prybar, but it doesn't claim to be in the first place. Not that cheap, but worth the money. You might want to check several pieces for quality, though, because given they are all handcrafted, there are huge differences in quality. If you can do that, you get an awesome everyday companion.

Medieval "pen knife" - a cooperation project

This is the blade I made for Steffen, who re-enacts a medieval scholar and who wanted a knife to cut the pens of goose feathers for writing. He had given me a very detailed input into the design. It should have been left-handed;-), and I researched the rest. It is quite an interesting knife to forge, for the blade has to be very, very thin and razor - sharp. So I did some very thorough annealing and gave it but a very conservative temper at roundabout 56 HRC. It is that flexible that it stands the Solingen nail test (when drawn flat over a nail, an elastic "wave" forms). It had taken me some experimenting, but it all went okay in the end. It can be stropped over a leather belt, like a razor. Erich turned the beautiful handle out of boxwood, and the magic troll glued it on.

Family project, you see;-). It all worked out great, and Steffen was quite enthused about it. We traded for a flatrate of some bottles of his delicious and healthy "Hippocras" spiced wine.

For me it was quite the joy to make this knife and I hope it serves him very well in his scripture work.

Another flea market find with a story to tell

 Okay, the recent post was a very good example of a knife that tells a story, and here comes another: This knife I found only but recently on a local flea market. It is a variant of a Solingen classic, but also a knife that has seen use all over the world. It has a carbon steel "Säbelskniep" (clip point) main blade, a stainless steel pen blade, and a corkscrew. The knife obviously has seen some vast reworking. It has one nickel silver and one brass bolster, the pivot is a substitute, and the scales also had seen some reworking.

 The spring bear the engraving "Gerd Sarwatzky", apparently the name of the owner. Of course, the knife is a slipjoint. Note the minimal tolerances between bolster and blade; the gap towards the iron liner came to be because of aging. The owner certainly knew a thing or two about metal working.

 The reverse side of the knife.

And another detail of the engraving.

As I already said in the previous post, this is another example of a lovingly repaired tool, and it is obvious this knife has served the owner long and well, and he was proud of it. He also knew how to repair it. What I want to show is, that doing repairs like these was a commonplace in those times not so long ago.

While it somewhat compromised the clean look of the tool, I daresay the owner loved it even more for it, for by doing so, it became "his" tool even more, which becomes evident in the fact that he engraved it. It was a very personal item. A knife was, and is, in general, a very personal item, and thusly I indicate once more, that it is a very essential part of our culture. It certainly was used for all the little challenges of everyday life, and it was used long and caringly, as evident in the negative, somewhat "recurve" line of the main blade, which hints of a long period of sharpening intervals. Since there are no coarse grinding marks or even heat colour signs on the blade, the negative line cannot be due to unskilled sharpening, but is rather due to avery long time of servicing. So, it became a part of everyday life of the owner, constituting, if not a huge part of his life and interactions with his surroundings, so still an intelligible one.

Get the gist?;-)

A collection of German pocket knives-aspects of a culture

 This is a part of my collection of pocket knives. (Top to bottom: Otter "Notschlachter", 1.4110 100 mm blade, á virole lockback, brass bolster, stag antler scales, Schlieper 440C 85 mm blade, nickelsilver bolster, stag antler scales, Hartkopf 1.4110 85 mm blade, nickel silver bolsters, stag antler scales, Hubertus 1.4109 110 mm blade, 1.4034 saw and corkscrew, nickel silver bolsters, Sambar stag antler scales, Hubertus 1.4109 90 mm blade, 1.4034 pen blade 55 mm, corkscrew, nickel silver bolster, Sambar stag antler scales, Hartkopf 1.4110 76 mm blade, nickel silver bolsters and inlay, ebony scales, Hubertus 1.4109 85 mm blade, art nouveau nickel silver bolsters, paper micarta scales, David Everts 440C 85mm blade, stainless steel bolster, Makassar ebony scales, Boker carbon steel 110 mm blades, Sambar stag scales and nickel silver bolsters).

When I was into knife collecting, I put this collection together because of a historical and morphological approach- and because I NEEDED ´em so bad, of course;-). The Solingen pocket knife, the "Hippekniep" is a speciality that has influenced many types of knives around. While in the South of Germany people wore fixed knives as part of their every day attire, (1800+), the civilian fashion dictated a more discreet approach in the North of Germany. I take this to be a sign and relic of the Hanse and trader´s culture where it could be seen as an offence to wear weapons in the presence of a business partner, at least it was seen as a peasant´s custom. Fashion dictated a small and light "gentlemen´s" knife, which had a slip joint mechanism in the 1800s. A large, fixed knife was used for working on a farm or when hunting. Restrictive laws surprisingly were not as big an issue as may seem, for men of the upper classes wore rapiers and sabers, at least after the 1870´s on formal occasions. The Knigge directive that a gentleman should always walk on the right side of his lady has something to do with the fact that the rapier or saber was worn on the left. If the left hand was occupied by the arm of the lady, the right hand was free for defence purposes. In WW I there was a drastic change. The proud cavalry regiments who set out to battle with flowers on their rifles and helmets were hacked to mincemeat by artillery and machine gun fire-something to think about for every warmonger, if you ask me. In the narrow trenches sabers and rapiers often were a lethal hindrance. Theatre weapons were ground to poignards and daggers and trench knives, until the ordonnance catched up with reality. Having talked to some survivors of that war when I was a child - and I am very glad I had the opportunity- those few that dared to talk about their experiences (and most still trembled and cried at the mere thought of it), I can tell WW I, and especially the trench war must have been hell on earth. Men and horses crying, the air thick with poison gas, and comrades hacked to mincemeat hanging in the barbed wire, wounded, but impossible to tend to, people dying all over the place, from fever, rot, bullets, poison gas, grenades, bullets and insanity. I think the short story "La ferme morte" by Ernst Wiechert 
transports the spirit of the situation best. Unfortunately, the link is only available in German, and I have no permission to translate it. WW I is crucial to the understanding of the Solingen pocket knife and a big part of German psychology. The proud regiments of the "Reichsgründung", and the fragile self-confidence of the new German state were hacked to mincemeat. Young people of every nation died in that war, and all just because of the death of one person! It´s always old people warmongering and talking and young people dying. However, while it was a caesura in the psychological history of nations all over the world, it was as well for the young German nation. But, if the need arises, and the need is strong enough, any individual will swallow his pride and grind down his saber and pride himself (and herself!) in carrying a knife instead. In WW I the fighting knife in its modern form was born and took the place of the saber or rapier-and even sword. Ernst Wiechert again was it who stated: "Not the sword is the symbol of our time. It is the whip and the tank." Nowadays one could add the credit card. Put it in behind the whip.;-) Were wearing a knife it a sign of being countrified at first, soldiers proudly displayed their ceremonial poignards, daggers and trench knives, and while there now actually were trench knives handed out by ordonnance, many of them were bought from private money. Privateers however, took a similar pride in their pocket knives. Students were presented with a pen knife. The word itself hints of its original use. The pen knife originally was used to trim the tips of feather pens / quills to be able to write. The pen knife for travelling had many different blades in many shapes. There were most beautiful examples, some of the most attractive being produced in Sheffield. The "Hippekniep", which originated in the North of Germany, originally meaning "sickle/ billhook knife" originally was a farming tool with a folding billhook, sickle or "Hepchen" sheepfoot blade around a palm´s width length used for pruning trees and harvesting herbs, soon evolved into a multitude of shapes, the most common being a spearpoint blade. Very common also was a straight back blade with an upswept tip in line with the spine. This was known as a "Notschlachter" (emergency butchering blade) used to butcher lifestock on a farm that could not be saved and where a bigger knife was not at hand. The blade was typically around 100 mm long and often had an à virole lockback system, but for the most part, came with a slipjoint mechanism. The form "mineur"
in France and the sodbuster in the USA and the UK have the same characteristics. Who influenced whom cannot be said. From the most eloquent pen knives and the crude farming tools evolved a species of pocket knives with a wide range of uses, known as "gentlemen knives", "tourist knives"(Solingen) or "officer´s / military knives" referring to the swiss military knife variety. There was a kind of reinfluence towards the trench knife variety, as evident e.g. in the multi-blade trench knife. In the disarmament of German populace that followed WWII most any knives were classified as lethal weapons, but slipjoint and folding knives were still socially acceptable. In the 1950´s fixed blade knives were allowed again. Interestingly, there was an amount of social control arising that prohibited people from carrying the so-called pathfinder and "Fahrtenmesser" (sheath knives) in public for a longer period of time. They were tauted as "forbidden" and socially not acceptable. Pocket knives were, and they were the pride of many male (and female) citizens still. In the 1950´s, there was a heigh time of hunting and folding knives in Solingen only paralleled by the time between the world wars. The art of the cutlers reached a peak. Now to the knives:

 Top to bottom: Hartkopf gentleman knife, 76 mm 1.4110 blade, lockback, ebony scales with nickel silver bolsters. Hubertus gentleman hunting knife, 85 mm 1.4109 lockback blade, paper micarta scales and beautiful art nouveau nickel silver bolsters. David Everts pocket hunting knife, 85 mm 440 C (1.4125) lockback blade with a mechanism typical of Solingen hunting knives, Makassar ebony scales.
Hubertus

 Hubertus pocket knife, 90 mm 1.4109 lockback main blade, 1.4034 pen blade and corkscrew, nickel silver bolsters and Sambar stag antler scales.

 Schlieper pocket knife, ca, 1960, carbon steel blades, "Säbelskniep" (bowie style) and spear point, and corkscrew, bone scales and steel bolster. Above a Schlieper slipjoint sodbuster with carbon steel blade and paper micarta scales.

 Top to bottom:  Herbertz slip joint pen knife, 70 mm 1.4034 main blade, 55 mm pen blade, ca. 1980. Boker slip joint pen knife, 70 and 55 mm blades, 1.4034, corkscrew, jigged black bone. A very special Hermann Konejung knife, which was a journeyman admission piece, not stamped. Carbon steel blades, 70 and 55 mm, Acrylite scales, hand filed corkscrew, ca. 1955.

 An "Adelskniep" (nobleman´s knife) slipjoint knife, 85 mm main, 55 mm pen blade, nail file, corkscrew, and a speciality: A champagne hook used to open the wrapping of champagne bottles, Gebrüder Gräfrath 1952.

 Two detail photos of the admission test knife by a Hermann Konejung apprentice.

 The handfiled corkscrew.

 A pre-1940??? knife (see the tin can opener) of unknown provenience. Carbon steel blades. Cap lifter, tin can opener, awl, philips screwdriver, Bakelite scales.

A big favourite of mine, an Otter "Hippekniep" at its best. Slipjoint with a half stop. Carbon steel blade, bolster, spring, cocobolo scales. 80 mm length, and cuts like the proverbial devil. C 100 steel.

Many of these knives have been the companion of the individuals that carried them. They cut sticks and orange peels, paper, bacon, bread and onions, loose threads on the suit and they all tell a story. All over the world there are knives like these. Some are used hard and loved harder, some spend the life of their owner sitting in a box, being loved no less for it. And, I daresay, none of these knives have ever killed anybody. Even the trench knives will not have killed anybody most of the time. Chance is, they cut bread and cheese and rope and wood most of the time. Knives mirror the culture into which they are born, and their development has never known frontiers. To be precise, knives are a very crucial part of our culture. The socially acceptable use of knives is an essential part of being a human, and it shall be a human right to do so, in my opinion. The expressions of the art of cutlery making, and the celebration of using it in cooking, woodworking, eating, picknicking and all those many other uses one could think of should be subject to protection. A knife can be, psychologically speaking, a way to shape one´s world according to one´s wishes. It is crucial to be prepared, and gives its owner the feeling to be capable of positioning him or herself in the world. In many cultures, and first and foremostly the culture we live in, the presenting of a knife to a male individual was a sign of manhood. Modified towards modern terms, one could say, it is a symbol of taking responsibility and, in turn, being able to shape one´s path, regardless of gender.

Taking a knife from humans by restrictive weapon laws that hit the majority of socially adequate and law - abiding users, is a symptom of the barbarianism that is so common in this world.

To promote a socially acceptable use of knives, is a big goal for me, and while I understand limitations on weapons and firearms, limiting the use of working knives is more than restrictive. It is an attack on any culture. For it limits the possibility to counter- and interact with the world for the individual. It is an incapacitation.

With this post, I have tried to make clear some of the cultural aspects of pocket knives, albeit a tiny part of them. It has a lot of limitations, but I think one thing is made clear: That the cultural connections are legion, and that the knives of the European nations are an essential part of their culture, as is in any nation all over the world.

Knives are a crucial and important aspect of culture, and due to the aforementioned reasons their socially acceptable use should be protected by the law, not prohibited, as is the case to date.