J A Henckels 10" Hand Forged Carbon Steel Chef Knife Model 102 1910-20s

Drop forged and then hand forged (tapered tang, lots of taper in blade thickness) hand ground J A Henckels chef knife made in Solingen Germany in the early 20th C. The Henckels markings of this general period are very similar but judging from the three steel pins rather than two nickel pins and single rivet handle construction of the 1930's this looks like earlier 20th C. production. 

Hand forged and ground carbon steel knives like this largely ended in the mid 1960's in Solingen Germany being supplanted first by the removal of hand forging after drop forging and later by stainless steel and less hand grinding. As the older skilled workers retired and the cost of labor rose hand grinding on carbon steel was no longer the norm in Solingen. Stainless steel became very popular and the bigger names in Solingen began to produce larger quantities of knives with less hand work in the 1970's onward. This knife represents a previous era where hand work was a pillar of Solingen production.  

This knife has lost a good portion of it's original width, although it is a light weight model it had become thick behind the edge, the handle is tight and secure but defintly shows some dings and scuffs along side general wear and rounding.

This knife has been re-ground and thinned behind the edge on a large 3 foot diameter Japanese water stone wheel (kaiten mizu toishi) and then resurfaced with a medium fine finish, our take on an old style grinding and finishing technique. While the particular wheel used to refurbish this knife is typically used in Japanese knife making it is very similar to the old grinding wheels used to shape European and American hand ground cutlery. A convex face to a blade greatly increases a knife's performance as there is less sticking as there is on a flat face and the blade does not get thick behind the edge nearly as fast as with a flat faced blade. Being that we are often working with old blades that need re-shaping and might have been rusted expect some minor imperfections, we try to give a fresh start to our re-ground blades with an eye towards their original grind style and keeping as much metal is needed on a blade when ever possible. Check out Bernal Cutlery co founder Josh Donald's book Sharp to see these wheels in use and more about their history in Europe and Japan.