I don't know anything about knives, nor do I have any interest in them, but I do know a little something about Henry Frank.
I lived across the road from Henry Frank in the 1970s in Whitefish, Montana. I was a teenager at the time. I went to high school with his daughter, Linda, his only child.
Henry was born in Germany. He was in the Hitler Youth when he was young, a fact he wasn't all too keen to discuss in any detail. He just said it wasn't a big deal at the time, it was just like being in the Boy Scouts. Fortunately he was too young to be drafted into the army during WWII. Eventually he escaped to Canada while still a teenager, I believe. That is where he met his wife, Joan, although they divorced long ago. They then moved to the U.S., where he became a citizen.
Henry was an avid health and fitness advocate. He was a regular runner, like my father. He only had one lung. Things in Germany had been very bad and when he immigrated it was discovered that he had tuberculosis and had to have a lung removed. But you would never know it.
Henry was kind of a stereotypical autocratic German and his daughter Linda used to drive him crazy because she was very athletic and social and he couldn't understand why she didn't want to stay home all the time and be the dutiful daughter instead of going out with her friends all the time. They fought a lot. When she really wanted to piss him off she would do the Hitler salute at him! It sure did the trick, too.
I remember once she snuck me into his little studio to see the elephant tusk he had in there. He used the ivory for his knives. It was a great big thing. This was before it became illegal to own. I also remember he had to register with the FBI or something because he was an engraver and therefore a potential counterfeiter.
My family has long since lost contact with Henry. They moved away from Whitefish and Henry now lives in Oregon. But he was quite a character.
Hope this info has been helpful to you.
