Anton Wingen Stag Carving Set

O

OTguy

Joined
May 31, 2004
Messages
445
I recieved a 4 piece stag carving set yesterday that I had won on ebay. This set is awesome! The set has a carving knife, fork, steel, and poultry shears, all with beautiful stag handles. Not skinny, thin stag, but fat grippy stag that you can really wrap your hand around. The knife has etching of popular German game animals on it, boar, stag, red deer, and a large bird that looks like a turkey. Can't remember what the bird is called, little help here. Shears are heavy duty, can't wait to try them on a turkey. The whole set looks to be unused, if it was used then its just barely used. The box is a little beat up, but thats ok. Box has a message written in it from 1971, "a gift from grammy", so I appears to be somewhat vintage. I know kitchen stuff isn't talked about much, but I'm pretty excited about this set, its some classy, quality stuff. Best thing about it was I won it with a 10$ bid, can't hardly buy a China-made set at wally world for 10 bucks. I feel like I stole it :p Anybody else have one of these German made sets and have you used it?
 
OTguy said:
... and a large bird that looks like a turkey. Can't remember what the bird is called, little help here.
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Pheasant?

Congrats on the score! sounds like a great set.
 
Not a pheasent, Esav. It begins with a c, its spelled similar to calliope, but I know that isn't right. Shoot, now I got to go look it up.
 
I've got one of the carving knives that I picked up at a thrift store or antique mall. I doubt that I payed over $5.00 for it. I like the Wingen knives. Unfortunately they closed down the factory in 1995. Does your knife have the Othello trademark on it? Somewhere along the line the Anton Wingen Jr name was acquired by "Maitland-Othello". I have had several Anton Wingen knives and they take a great edge. I haven't really used this one since I don't want to damage the etching.

Here's a tail of woe regarding one of my Anton Wingen knives. For a number of years I have gone down to the local soup kitchen every couple months with a group from my church. I usually bring along a collection of sharp knives for our team to use. The knives at the soup kitchen are thrashed. One of the ones I brought a couple years ago was a nice Anton Wingen carving knife. It did not get put back in my box when the knives went home with me. Normally all that would mean is that it would be really dull and the handle might be kind of bleached when I picked it up on our next trip. Unfortunately someone had come down to help the soup kitchen with their dull knives and had brought a bench grinder. The whole side of the blade was gouged up by a big 50 grit wheel. The entire finish was gone from the bevel and the edge was hogged back about 1/8-inch. I didn't even bother to take it home with me after that.
 
The tradition of carving sets and of carving the meat at the table is sort of being lost. I think that's a shame.

That's why I'm so pleased to own an original Murphy carving set. David Murphy was a Ford mechanic here in Portland. At the time, Ford had a problem with Aluminum pistons that didn't last and another with leaf springs that broke. So Murphy tood the many blown out pistons and made handles for the knives he was making out of the leaf springs and took his product door-to-door in the better neighborhoods in Portland in his spare time. This it was that one day he called on the home of a local businessman named Peter Gerber. And the rest, as they say, is history. And so is my carving set. When I got the set, it was obviously used. I've continued to carefully use it. It's part of the history of the knife industry here in Portland.

You should use your German set too. Make it part of your family's traditions. Sit the whole family down for dinner and carve the meat in the old way.
 
A. G. Russell said:
The Germans call that bird "Auerhuhn" and the hunters in the 1940s spoke of it as the most desirable trophy as it was so hard to come by.
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Thanks Esav and A.G., thats the bird. Read a article about hunting them years ago and just couldn't remember. As for the carving set, it will get used, I'm the official family carver at gatherings and I will now carve in style. One other question, the fork has a extension at the bottom of the tines that is operated by a lever. When you open it, it appears to give you a third tine or another place to grab the meat. Does anyone know what the function of this is or what its called?
 
OTguy said:
One other question, the fork has a extension at the bottom of the tines that is operated by a lever. When you open it, it appears to give you a third tine or another place to grab the meat. Does anyone know what the function of this is or what its called?
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If it has two legs that will hold the fork part off the table cloth that is what it is for, if not then it is meant to keep the fork from going too deep into the meat.. It is best when it does both.
 
Thank you again A.G., I hadn't thought about it as something to hold the fork off the table.

My education continues.
 
I have a set that closely resembles your description except that it is a knife and fork set only. Same etching, handle, etc. Original box, never been used. Does anyone know the value?
 
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