Solinger Fahrtenmesser

K

kwackster

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Dec 23, 2005
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The link below points to the website of a German knife collector & knife friend who collects various old school Solinger Fahrtenmesser (or Scout knives as they are called in the rest of the world), which i also happen to like quite a bit.
The website is meant only for showcasing his beautiful and still expanding collection, not for commercial purposes, and the owner is a very friendly fellow, who also reads & writes in English.

www.solinger-fahrtenmesser.de

Solinger-Fahrtenmesser

www.solinger-fahrtenmesser.de www.solinger-fahrtenmesser.de
 
Wow that's quite an impressive collection!! Kwackster thanks for sharing.

Eric
 
K kwackster Many thanks for showing us this, deserves more appreciation. I liked the Taschenmeßer section in particular :cool:

Here's a much liked Stag lockback, Weidmannsheil

zKuazjY.jpg
 
A few examples of Fahrtenmesser from different German manufacturers:

Vintage Puma 8101 - "Lang" Texas Bill throwing scout knife from the early 1950's.
This is the slightly longer version of the original Texas Bill knife.
Definitely one of the more elusive Puma scout models, especially in this condition.
Complete with original sheath.


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Texas Bill was the main character in a series of German Wild-West novels from that era:



Specs:

Overall length: 9.33 inch (23,7 cm)
Blade length: 5.63 inch (14,3 cm)
Blade thickness (max): 4,91 mm
Steel: drop-forged carbon steel
Handle materials: brass guard, leather & fiber washers, aluminium pommel with brass nut.
Weight: 136.9 grams
Sheath: leather

The Puma factory worker who put this long version of the Texas Bill knife together all these years ago threaded a too small section of the tang end, and as a result the brass nut could never be tightened fully to securely compress pommel & washers.
These had also shrunk a bit over the years, so all handle parts were very loose, and the brass nut itself was also sticking out of the pommel a few millimeters.
Let's just say that quality control on this knife could have been a bit better.

Lucky for me is that this issue was most likely also the reason why the knife was never really used over the years.
So when i received it i disassembled the handle, lengthened the M5 threading, polished the guard a bit, glued all the washers back in place, lightly sanded the handle surface, polished the aluminium pommel and the (now flush) brass nut end a bit, then nourished the old leather with a few coatings of warm Granger's wax.

Picture #3 shows the small section of threading best:



 
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Vintage Puma 6303 Scout knife (Fahrtenmesser) from the early 1950's
Gave it some TLC and hand reground the blade to full convex, apex @ ~25 degrees inclusive.
Complete with original sheath.
















Specs:

Overall length: 10.43 inches (26,5 cm)
Blade length: 6.14 inches (15,6 cm)
Maximum blade thickness (ricasso): 4.88 mm
Steel: Hot drop-forged carbon steel
Handle materials: Brass guard, leather/fiber/brass washers, stag midsection, aluminium bolster
Sheath: Leather with metal tip protector
 
Puma 7105 Rehfuss from the 1940's or '50's.
Rehfuss is German for deerfoot, which is what is used as a handle on this smaller scout knife.
It is secured over the hidden tang with a steel pin through the hoof.

















Specs:

Overall length: 9.33 inch (23,7 cm)
Blade length: 4.17 inch (10,6 cm)
Maximum blade thickness (ricasso): 4,0 mm
Steel: hot drop-forged carbon steel
Handle material: real deer foot with brass guard & nickel silver ferrule
Sheath: Leather (restitched)
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Puma Scout knife, probably from the '60's or '70's, and apart from a few details comparable to the well known Hitler Youth knife.












Specs:

Overall length: 24,4 cm (9.6 inches)
Blade length: 13,9 cm (5.47 inches)
Blade thickness: max. 5.97 mm (ricasso)
Steel: hot drop-forged stainless steel
Handle material: Chromed metal with riveted plastic grips & Fleur de Lis emblem
Sheath: metal with 1 steel clamp spring inside & leather belt loop
Weight of the knife without sheath: 199 grams
Weight of the knife with sheath: 280 grams
 
Vintage Gebr.Gräfrath Fahrtenmesser (Scout knife) from the 1930's or begin '40's.
The handle is made from Trolon, an early plastic that was also used on many Third Reich dress daggers, and which has the tendency to slowly become darker over the years.
Gebr. Gräfrath manufactured knives in Widdert (part of the city of Solingen) from 1878 until 1961, when the company was bought by Hubertus, another Solingen manufacturer owned & operated by the Kuno Ritter family to this day.














Specs:

Overall length: 8.8 inch (22,4 cm)
Blade length: 5,1 inch (13,0 cm)
Maximum blade thickness (ricasso): 4,6 mm
Steel: hot drop-forged carbon steel
Handle material: brass guard, brass & fiber washers, one-piece Trolon plastic midsection, aluminium pommel with brass screw.
Sheath: Leather
 
In the 1920's the Gebr.(brothers) Lützenkirchen from Solingen, Germany were known as manufacturers of straight razors, but starting around the 1930's they also made & distributed general cutlery & scissors.
Just like many other Solingen manufacturers during the 3rd Reich period they also made Hitlerjugend knives and SA dress daggers, these last ones being quite rare nowadays.
In 1935 their factory was situated on the Klingenstrasse (blade street) 36 in Solingen, and this is a list of the various brand names they used: 'Botafogo' (1920), 'Ciwis Solingen' (late 1920s?), 'Conte Aiollo' (1921), 'Kirche' (1923), 'La Foca' (1920), 'Lützenkirchen' (1920), 'Lutz Solin' (1922), 'Phoca' (1920), 'Schwertschlag' (1923), 'Seehund' (1919).

The pictures show one of their Fahrtenmesser (scout knife) with lion head figurine pommel, which was made under the Seehund (seal) brand in the late '40's and/or during the '50's.
It was in quite a bad state when i received it, but some TLC and a bit of elbow grease brought it back to life.
The steel also takes a screaming sharp toothy edge.

















Specs:

Overall length: 8.54 inch (21.7 cm)
Blade length: 4.57 inch (11.6 cm)
Max. blade thickness (ricasso): 4.84 mm
Steel: hot drop-forged carbon steel
Handle material: stag, leather & fiber washers, brass guard & aluminium pommel.
Sheath: leather
 
Some wonderful knives; thanks for showing them. I don't understand why any of them are called scout knives; they just seem the same as any other German hunting knife. ???
 
Just a reminder that, if you ever want more info on German knives, there's a great museum in Solingen.

iUxBRnW.jpg


They host a good show too. The next one is 25-26 OCT 2025 (right after Octoberfest Munich),

eisman

Thread 'Knife Show, Solingen, Germany 2024'

The 2024 Solingen Knife Show was held this past weekend, 11-12 May. There were 220 (more or less) exhibitors, many of whom are not especially well known outside of Europe. I was in the door fairly early, as I wanted to reserve a spot for one of the tours of the Boker facility (which I posted some photos from here https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/touring-the-boker-factory.1987785/). Lines to get in were a couple blocks long before the doors opened. The show center is a two story building and the show uses all of the space, which is why the 2025 show will be held 24-25 October, 2025...
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This Anton Wingen Jr. Othello Scout knife was bought by a Dutch man in the late '50's or early 60's as a souvenir, and from what i learned from his daughter is that it spent the rest of it's days forgotten in a drawer inside it's sheath.
When i bought it the blade was quite pitted and almost black from all those years inside it's leather sheath, and it still had it's factory "edge" of about 60-65 degrees inclusive.

I chose to regrind the blade by hand to a very shallow full convex zero edge with an apex that fits the 25 degrees inclusive slot on my Tormek WM200 angle guide, using only a new sheet of 400 grit wet & dry and WD40 as a lubricant on a rubber backing.
This removed most of the blackened pitting & solved the edge problem in one go.
Also glued the fiber washers together and sanded them flush again (some had expanded somewhat over the years), and polished the brass guard a bit.












Specs:

Post-war model, probably made in the late 1940's or during the 1950's
Overall length: 8.54 inch (21.7 cm)
Blade length: 4.57 inch (11.6 cm)
Max. blade thickness (ricasso): 4.8 mm
Steel: hot drop-forged carbon steel
Handle material: stag, fiber washers, brass guard & aluminium pommel.
Sheath: leather

After disassembling the knife i discovered a tang stamp of an anvil with (possibly) a hand holding a hammer.
Now as you know these blades were hot drop forged, and Anton WIngen Jr. seems to have had it's own forge up until the 1980's, but maybe this one was done by drop-forging specialist Felix, also in Solingen.
Would have to contact them to find out, as they are still in business.





Some old Anton Wingen Jr. Solingen advertising material:





 
The AW Scout knife together with a similar one made by Gebr.Lützenkirchen under their Seal brand from the same time frame, and which shares the exact same aluminium lion head pommel.
Also notice the difference in stag handle manufacture: the Anton Wingen knife is still done the old way with 2 pieces of stag halves joined with brass pins, while the one made by Gebr.Lützenkirchen uses the newer one piece method.






 
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