My Grandfathers knife 60 + years old and still goin' strong.

T. Erdelyi

T. Erdelyi

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Feb 3, 2001
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Just returned from a 4 week visit/vacation to Hungary and some surrounding countries, This was my Grandfathers knife, he used it 30 years ago the last time I saw him(I was 15 then) to cut Kielbasa and smoked/cured meats in the pantry for our afternoon meals along with cutting up bread and onions and peppers to go with the ham.

My cousin found it in the basement and gave it to me as a gift when I went home.

prunera.jpg


It's gotta be over 60 years old and other than the pitting/character it's as strong as the day he let me use it to cut myself a piece of kielbasa the last day I saw him.

I hadn't even thought of that day or the knife in nearly 30 years, her giving me that knife brought a tear to this old Mad Hungarians eye.

It says Gerlach Poland on the tang I'm not even sure what kind of wood it has for handles, anyone ever seen or heard of this brand.

prunerc.jpg


prunerb.jpg


BTW the trip was great, great food, great booze, great family.
 
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neat knife and awesome story. do a search for gerlach knives and it will take you to their website. still in business and still make pocketknives. thanks for taking the time to post the pics and the story. later, ahgar
 
Welcome back glad the trip was so great for you!

This is nothing more than what would be to me a priceless knife. :D

Thanks for telling us the story.
 
Bastid said:
Welcome back glad the trip was so great for you!

This is nothing more than what would be to me a priceless knife. :D

Thanks for telling us the story.
Click to expand...

The funny part, when my grandfather died 25 years ago his daughter in law threw it out and my cousin who's my age (46) garbage picked it and saved that and his Bull Horn that he used to keep his sharpening stone in and hanging on his belt for sharpening his scythe when working in the fields, the horn has to be 100+ years old I'll post a pic later.
 
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Great story and description, this is what makes knife collecting so incredible because it's the story behind the knife that makes it so collectable :) . Your cousin is pretty incredible also...

Thanks,

Sunburst
 
Three more pictures to finish this story:

First is the horn my grandfather had that he kept the sharpening stone in:

horn.jpg



Here's a picture of my grandfather and 6 of my mother's brothers and sisters, if you look on his belt you'll see the horn hanging:

grnpalrg.jpg


For the old folk with bi-focals here's a closeup:

grnpalrga.jpg
 
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That's a great story and some real nice pics. My family hails from Hungary too. I've never had the experience of visiting there but hope to one day.
 
Great story!
I have some old knives in my collection, knifes that belonged to family members long time ago.
If I were you, I would try to get a NEW prunning knife of the same style.
Now it seems that Gerlach no longer produces theses knives and is more into table cutlery, but I know of several german cutlers like "Lütters & CIE", "Otter", "Hugo Koller" that produce this kind of knives. Shure that there's some cutlers from poland, too.
So with a new knife you could get the feeling that your grandfather had :)

nice story, especealy with the pics :)

EDIT: Do a search on google with "gerlach Nóż" and you'll find a pic of your knife... seems that they STILL DO THEM - just need to find them..
 
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