What have I got here?

[eisman]

I have to admit, lately it's been strange. Now here we have a nice little German knife, with stamped blades, but either I can't read them right, or the maker's lost somewhere in history.

I read this as J. Eichel. (could be Etchel). The period after the J is pretty plain. Pity the rest isn't. But I can't find a maker of that name.

The mystery grows when I look at the full stamp. Ohligs was a city in Germany known for knives. But why then stamp it Solingen?

Anybody able to help clear this up. I'd really like to know who made this thing.

 

[Ernie1980]

I can’t help give information, but it is a fine looking little knife!

 

[The Zieg]

I have to admit, lately it's been strange. Now here we have a nice little German knife, with stamped blades, but either I can't read them right, or the maker's lost somewhere in history.

I read this as J. Eichel. (could be Etchel). The period after the J is pretty plain. Pity the rest isn't. But I can't find a maker of that name.

The mystery grows when I look at the full stamp. Ohligs was a city in Germany known for knives. But why then stamp it Solingen?

Anybody able to help clear this up. I'd really like to know who made this thing.

Ohligs is a borough in the greater Soligen metro area. Think of a knife maker putting "Brooklyn NYC" on a knife. In fact, I have an old church key with that very stamp on it!

The maker is in fact J. Eichel. A quick search of "j eichel ohligs" comes up with several results. Try your search again.

Zieg

 

[veitsi_poika]

Josef Eichel... that bone is awesome!

 

[Shurke]

It happens that I just used some Christmas money to buy a a book by J. Anthony Carter titled "German Knife and Sword Makers," and it came in the mail yesterday. Let me crack this thing open....

Okay here it is (though unfortunately, it's not much): the entry on Josef Eichel says the company specialized in pocket knives, but other than the fact that some Eichel knives can be definitively dated to the time of the Third Reich, little else is known.

 

[SIG96]

It happens that I just used some Christmas money to buy a a book by J. Anthony Carter titled "German Knife and Sword Makers," and it came in the mail yesterday. Let me crack this thing open....

Okay here it is (though unfortunately, it's not much): the entry on Josef Eichel says the company specialized in pocket knives, but other than the fact that some Eichel knives can be definitively dated to the time of the Third Reich, little else is known.

Let me know how that book turns out for you. Always looking for more quality reference and reading material

 

[Shurke]

It's already made my shortlist of indispensable reference books. It's not perfect, but what it does well, it does very well. It's biggest strength is an index that connects various brands and trademarks to their manufacturers. For instance, if you had a knife labeled "Hope Cutlery Co," you could look up "Hope" in the index and discover that the brand was owned by J. Albert Schmidt. The entry on Schmidt then specifies that the company registered the Hope brand in the year 1900.

Overall, I'm very happy with this book.