Oh, the things you see!

dsutton24

dsutton24

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Apr 9, 2018
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I guess that if you live long enough you'll see just about everything. Here's a VINTAGE JA HENCKELS from a popular auction site:

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You might notice that this vintage Henckels has a Diamond Edge shield on it. A rare collaboration for sure!

Okay, maybe I was being a bit too clever. A bit of history: JA Henckels is a German company founded in the 1700s, most of their pocketknives made over the past few decades were made by Boker, and are nicely made knives. Diamond Edge was an Imperial brand, made in the USA and other places as well. Imperial was known worldwide for their cheap tin shell handled knives. Nothing against Imperial, at all, their knives skinned as many squirrels as anyone out there, I'm sure. But, the point is that Henckels blades don't belong in Diamond Edge knives.

I've got some history with this seller. I bought a Trapper from him, and once I had it in hand it was obvious that the thing had been taken apart and badly reassembled. I'd swear the pivot pin was a piece of finish nail. It's hard to tell much from bad pictures, but this one obviously has multiple problems. To his credit he did refund my money with no problem and went away for a while. I don't know if this guy is doing this deliberately, from his other sales he looks like a flea marketer and may not know better.

In any event, watch what you're buying.
 
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Looks like nice full blades, too bad it was tinkered with. I have slowed down my vintage knife buying from the auction site- got burned a couple times!
 
Hickory n steel said:
Diamond edge was a trademarked brand for Shapleigh hardware if I'm not mistaken.
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Yes, it was used by Shapleigh Hardware until about 1960. The name was picked up by Imperial in the late 60s. That one above doesn't look like Imperial construction though...
dsutton24 said:
It's been taken down, it was a buy-it-now for $40. I'm hoping that the seller took it down, and that somebody didn't buy that dog.
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Whats the user name? Maybe somebody should take a look if he has more knives for sale....
 
dsutton24 said:
Imperial was known worldwide for their cheap tin shell handled knives
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True, Imperial did make a lot of inexpensive tin shell handled knives. (Though they did have the same high quality blades as the more expensive knives with regular construction.)
However, it wasn't always so.
1936-1955 tang stamp Imperial Engineers knife. The can opener dates it to no older than 1947.
Genuine German Silver Bolster with brass liners. Not a light weight. At 1662.8 grains it weighs more than my 1583.4 grain 1975 issue Western Demo knife.
I suspect the weight difference is at least partly due to the Imperial having a pen blade rather than a punch/awl.

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Interesting, like looking under a stone and seeing creepy horrors crawling out :eek:

The master blade looks horribly overbladed if you look at how the spine stands well clear of the spring and that crude pivot pin is a cheaper finish of knife, not really on a Henckels .Are those scales Jigged Delrin?

Well, many of us have been seduced by the magic siren word 'Vintage' the Bay can draw people in with this kind of wording ;)

Thanks, Will
 
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