Ed Wusthof Dreizackwerk 182-10 10.5" Narrow Flex Slicer Carbon Custom Handle Solingen, Germany 1960s

This is an Ed Wusthof (est. 1814) narrow slicer with Trident logo on a forged carbon steel blade with a custom made rosewood handle set with brass pins and a brass and nickel rivet.

The narrow bolster and large pommeled handle are in the old style as is the hand ground blade. The acid-etched logo suggests somewhat later 1960s manufacture as a hot stamp was used previously. This would be the end of this style of production, before the last of the carbon steel production where bolsters got bigger and pommels got smaller, like the style of the more familiar stainless Wusthofs of the 1970s and onward.

The condition of this knife overall is good. There is a crack in the handle, which seems stable, but is noted in the price. The blade has been sharpened a little and some previous grinds are near the edge here and there. We have sharpened it, and it is ready to get to work.

Anecdotally, for every 500 old carbon steel Henckels I have come across, only one Wusthof is found. They were not directly imported into the USA until the late 1950s, though some found their way here through travel and immigration.

Wusthof's model of automation, replacing hand work, began in the Marshal Plan Era re-tooling of post-WW2 Solingen. Lots of Solingen's industrial equipment was either destroyed or to taken by the British after the war, so a lot of industry was re-imagined. Mr Wusthof imagined having as few employees as possible and by the 1970s and 80s became very good at automating as much of production process as possible. This handmade knife pre-dates that era.