Herbertz Knives

R

Revvie

Joined
Dec 30, 1999
Messages
437
I'm looking for some "experience" -A friend brought me a knife from Germany - Herbertz is the brand - it's similar to a buck 110 in style and shape with embossed brass bolsters and some sort of wood scales the blade is marked "420 J" and the "Herbertz" name - what does anyone know about the maker and his reputation? This will not be a "user" but I'd kind of like an opinion anyway!
Thanks

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Don't wrestle with the hogs - they enjoy it and you get dirty !
Jonesy
 
Martin - That 6 digit number is "206413" and the tang is stamped "AISI 420" above that number .. "C.JUL.Herbertz" appears above that..I assume the AISI 420 refers to the steel.

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Don't wrestle with the hogs - they enjoy it and you get dirty !
Jonesy
 
Herbertz is one of the largest German makers and distributors of knives. Usually the Herbertz knives are considered as mediocre, although there are a few Herbertz knives that have very good performance while being inexpensive. Herbertz is also distributing some of the major US cutlery brands, and is making big bucks with it.

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"Peace is not without conflict; it is the ability to cope with conflict" - Leo Giron
 
AISI 420J steel is considered widely to be cheap economy grade steel. It doesn't hold an edge as well as most other steels, but it does take a good polish. 420J is an unworthy steel for user knives, but is fairly decent for display knives.

Sometimes if you heat treat 420J very well, it will perform as well as 440A, but this is not too common. I know that S&W made some 420J knives that cut like 440A, but even then there are better knives for the price than S&W.

As for Herbertz, I don't know. The last German knife I bought wasn't that great, and caused me to completely lose faith in German craftsmenship. I think a lot of German companies nowadays are just scooting by on their ancestry and history for extremely high quality workmanship. The knife I had gotten was a Boker Brend folder with G-10 scales and titanium bolsters. The bolsters creaked loudly against the G-10, and the blade scraped the liners because of improper spacing... some genius made the pocket clip screws too long and they tilted the blade off center in the closed position so it would scrape the liners when you opened and closed it.


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Chang and the Rebels of the East!
Southern Taiwan Will Rise Again!
cstsmall.jpg
 
Herbertz is a very big distributor. They sell POS made in Taiwan as well as excellent production pieces. The thing I don't like about them is that they sell copies of populars design and try to get a piece of the reputation of quality brands like Spyderco, Benchmade, etc. Besides that they often don't mark where the knives are made. You might think it's made in Germany when in fact it's made in the Far East. But at least you can conclude from the steel used what kind of performance you can expect. As mentioned, the best you can get from 420J steel is a decent performance, nothing to get exited about.


Here some links for Herbertz knives: http://www.herbertz-messerclub.de/start.php3 http://www.cutlerytogo.com/herofsol.html http://www.metal-box.de/pieks.htm http://www.helpi.com/messer-tools/Herbertz.htm
 
Thanks all for your thoughts - you all confirmed my suspicions about this particular knife.. . I'll probably never carry it anyway and It looks neat ! I Think that is what sold it ! some gifts you just keep .. they keep longer that way .. thanks again for the thoughts.

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Don't wrestle with the hogs - they enjoy it and you get dirty !
Jonesy
 
Herbertz Knives are poor quality productions knives well sold here in France due to proximity with Germany.
I owned one in my early days it was really cheap.

 
I think Herbertz' intention is not to make high quality knives for every day use.
An evidence therefor is that most of there knives are sold in an exhibition casket and they sell knives of famous american manufacturers (but too expensive: BM Pinnacle = 500 DM !). They do not even advertise with features like durability, steel type, etc.

greetings from germany,

Tilli
 
What Tilli said is absolutely right.

They sell cheap POS. Sometimes even without any hint to the steel they use.
Most of the blades are made of 420. These knives are not made for use, but they are also not made for display.
In my opinion their knives even look cheap.

And they sell some American Brand knives that expensive, you wont believe!!!

BM Ascent 215 DM! ha, ha!!!

I hate Herbertz!
 
Danke Freunden
What you all have said is about what I figured... information that I'll not be sharing with my friend. I appreciate your candor and responses.

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Don't wrestle with the hogs - they enjoy it and you get dirty !
Jonesy
 
Oooopsss!
I have posted something in the wrong thread, sorry!

[This message has been edited by Sergiusz Mitin (edited 08-10-2000).]
 
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