My Father’s Knife

[Stevens]

Post 32, as soon as I saw the picture I recognized it as one of the knives in the Herter's Catalogues I used to drool over back in the late 50s and 60s. I fianally bought one, a different design but it was a good sheath knife the knife is long gone but still have the sheath.
Herters usually had a "story" and folksy name for many of their products I don't remember the one for that knife.
Steve W

 

[Texas Star]

..........of your Father, his knife and memories. Glad it came back up because I missed the original posting. A similar story involves my Father's hunting knife.

In the early 1950s my Sister and her Husband were in Germany while he was serving. During their time there they bought Dad a nice little stag handled knife, unique in that it had folding blades inside the handle. Also unique in that there was no makers mark on it.

From my earliest memories that knife was always around as my Father was an avid Hunter and Fisherman. As I got older and able to join him on many of his outdoor adventures, I too carried a sheath knife but never one like his.

He was fatally injured in a car crash and after he passed my Sisters and I began the sad process of closing up his house and dealing with the debris of life that were left behind. The main thing to find on my mind was his knife and after several hours of not finding it I got worried. Then I went into the basement and found it inside his old hunting coat.

It remained one of my treasured keepsakes until about 10 years later when I suffered a house fire that was a total loss. Found the knife after the ashes cooled and it was in sad shape but it was still his knife.

A few years later while proweling an antique mall I spotted the twin to his knife and bought it. There was one difference, it had a makers mark. The knife was marked Henley.

A cold chill ran down my spine that hot summer day holding this knife in my hand. You see my Dad's first name was Henley.

A few years later a friend of a friend and her son were visiting with me. I found out his first name was Henley and when they left I gave him the knife.

The original still sets in a stand on my bookshelves in all of it's rough condition and reminds me everyday how fortunate I was to have the Father I did.

I think that Henley may be an importer or an exporter in Germany in the 1950's.

My first good knife is a Bavarian pattern with 4.5 inch blade and stag scales. It is marked Henley & Co., Germany. I think I was eight when I got it

But it has the head of Othello on the other side of the blade. This was/is the mark of Anton Wingen & Co. in Solingen.

I think Henley was a retailer in some manner of Wingen and perhaps of other Solingen knives.

If anyone knows, please post.

BTW, I asked a woman with Anton Wingen about why they used the head of a Shakespearean character as their logo. She didn't know. Said the answer was probably lost during the aftermath of WW II.

I still have this knife and want it to remain in the family when I pass. Yes, I will probably die. Not even Texans are immortal.

 

[Chubbo]

This thread prompted me to search through all of my Dad's "Stuff", that came to me, when he passed away. I thought, and hoped, that I would find one of the knives, that he carried, and used, doing the electric work, that he did, all of his adult life. I didn't find one. I do have his dad's, my granddad's, Corn knife. the brand name of it, is "Cut Sweet". I'm told that he always called it his, "Cut Sweet". It is well over 100 years old. I guess that old corn knife will have to "do The Trick", for my dad's knife. I didn't even have the gumption, to go out into the building, that holds our gardening tools, and search for it, so as to be able, to take pictures, and post 'em, So goes life at 87.

Chubbo

 

[Marshwheeling]

My pop was not a knife guy, so he did not have a well-used and treasured pocket knife to pass on. Neither was he a hunter, so, no hunting knives.

He was, however, what we would today call a foodie: a food writer, and a prodigious chef. What I got was kitchen cutlery. A lot of it was no-name carbon steel stuff, not unlike Old Hickory, but more anonymous, and perfectly serviceable.

Pop did place a lot of store by his Warther knives. He hailed from Dover, Ohio, which was also home to Ernest (Mooney) Warther, whose kitchen knives were distinguished by the finish that is sometimes called “jewelled”, but which I knew as “engine turned”. Pop grew up with Warther knives, and so in turn did my sibs and I.

There were quite a few pieces, but when pop passed on they had to be divided five ways. I ended up with a 9” chef’s knife, a small paring knife, and my favorite, this small cleaver. The photo is not too good, and I ought to make a better one. I do not recall ever seeing him use it, although I am sure that he did. I just like it.

 

[kraynky]

My Dad liked his knives alright, but he didn't collect any. I recall giving him a Buck pocket knife when I was about 15, and he was really proud of it. I don't know where it ended up however. It was not among his things, although I did get his watch and wallet as keepsakes. I lost him at a relatively early age, and this year marks the 30th year he's been gone & he passed suddenly when I was 30.

I do have a knife that he made "at work". He was a maintenance man at General Tire & Rubber. And while I'm sure he did some work, he had a lot of free time on his hands. I recall him making rings for all of us out of large nuts and such, and then he came home one day with this large knife, wrapped in an oily rag. I have since had a box made for it and it hangs in my living room. That sucker will shave the hair from your arm. I wish I knew more about what he started with, but just knowing he made it will have to suffice.