All About Pocket Knives

Guys,
What follows is a sort of history of Schlieper's company and I believe it to be accurate with two exceptions. First, El Gallo and Jim Bowie did not come along until much later than he says. And second, the Eye Logo existed long before he says. I have a hard bound book which served as a catalog in 1913 and it is full of examples of the Eye Logo. Otherwise, I believe the article to be informative.
The originator is a German native so be tolerant of his difficulties with the language.

Ray

Carl Schlieper Company History

The company „ Carl Schlieper Stahlwarenfabrik & Export", originally a trading-companie, was based in 1754 in Remscheid Germany.
The company exported world-wide many different stuff like: knives, tools, diesel ship aggregates, steam railways (and other things of the Krupp AG).
The substantial markets were Southeast Asia, in particular Siam, Malaysia, as well as the Netherlands colonies.
With the establishment a subsidiary company in Solingen, was pursued of being able to deal with a lot off small manufacturers of the knive buisness.
It followed a lot of deals with small manufacturers. This small manufactured stamped their knives under their own mark or for Carl Schlieper with the brand name "Carl Schlieper".
Old catalogs of "Carl Schlieper" -partial in Netherlands language- shows THOUSANDS (!!) of different knive types and variants up: Slipjoints, automatik knives, gardner measurer, dagger, hunt measurer, Macheten, "Hirschfänger", razors, kitchen measurer,
cutleries,....
Beside the brand name eye with sun, Schlieper use a lot of other brand names: e.g. to sunbeam, fan, half "Strahlenkranz", double, EUREKA, El Gallo, Jim Bowie GERMANY (!!), Maharaja, Ocular, in addition various symbols as well as at least 22 protected packing Designs in most different languages.
For the USA into the 1930er years the marks "Fan", "Jim Bowie" and "El Gallo" were used. Only after the 2. World war the "eye brand“ was the mark-symbol for Carl Schlieper.
Up-to-date this brand name is used by a former Schlieper supplier for the supply of the US importer.
1988 - 1989 the Solinger and Remscheider companies were united and the management in Solingen was concentrated.

The liquidation of Carl Schlieper took place after bankruptcy 1993.
I hope you can understand my poor translation.
Here a link to the original informations in German: Link removed by moderator. Please do not post links to other knife forums on USN. Thank you.
At last a warning, there are a lot of fakes of "Schlieper Knives" avaible.


Thanks. The knives I saw were all slipjoints or folding hunters.

Quote Originally Posted by PaP
Thanks. The knives I saw were all slipjoints or folding hunters.
Here you can see a Fairbairne Sykes Dagger from Schlieper. The owner buyed it arround 1990. You can see the eye brand with a half sunbeam.
This knife is marked "KOPASSUS" on the other side. In the messerforum.net thea are not shure if that stand for an knife companie from Indonesia or if it is the Name of an Indonesian Spezial Forces of there Army.
You see, Schlieper has also traded with real other knives than for hunting. They were also in the taktikal-buisnes.
I hope that intrest anyone of you. If you want I can post more Links to Schlieper knives

SAK Modder knifeco-op's Avatar

Hello El Dirko, Yes please post more links to Schlieper knives, especially any information about their tang stamps or trademarks.

Proverbs 27:17 "Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend"

MtMike
I have 2 of them, a small 3-blade stag trapper, and a large stag folding hunter with saw (really nice stag on the folding hunter, grade A stag on the trapper). As Danbo sez, they both take and hold a great edge. If you like Bokers you'll love Schleipers. I see them a lot in the secondary market, at good prices.
Mike

I have a few Eye Brand Congresses and mine have held a good edge. If you decide to buy one I would go with Stag handles. Larry

Quote Originally Posted by LarryM View Post I have a few Eye Brand Congresses and mine have held a good edge. If you decide to buy one I would go with Stag handles. Larry
I WOULD HAVE TO AGREE WITH YOU I HAVE CARRIED A YELLOW HANDLED CONGRESS FOR AT LEAST A YEAR.{AWESOME EDGE RETENTION}

if you are interested in the real quality eyes i suggest you p.m. me & i can give you a collector that favors these. i collected eyes from the 70s till 2000.--knifeguy39

thanks eldirko for that great history of schlieper.--knifeguy39

Great post Ray!
Thanks for the info.

Informative...thanks for the post!

an old friend of mine turned me on to Eye Brand years ago but i only have a couple Stag Congress four blade knives now.
thinking of picking up a Jim Bowie soon.
thanks for the history.

buzz

im buyin a knife in the next hour and looked everywhere to try to find a way to date german eye makers marks to no avail so im gettin it any way it has cals sch[ i cant spell it ] but i know its the right name with solingen germany right underneath it [dude claims its from the 50s [ fixed blade a little rust and a dremel tool mark on one side ] my favorite kind [ oh yeah one of the leather rings on the handle is messed up ] even better .there are so many fools on e-bay that only want shiney junk [i personally would not throw a puma or a linder at a glass bear even if it was chargin me !!! i got a kissing crane from the 40s a trench knife ,amazing steel , im carrying an olsen solingen 15 inches right now but i hope to upgrade to an eye in a little while ....so i thinkl i know a little but it's nice to be around people like my self .......thanks a thousand..........

Mr. Sutton. If you will check further on AAPK as to how to post a picture, I would love to see your knife. There are a few of us that will try our best to give you all the information at our disposal to help date your knife. Proviso.........,...Eye Brand fixed blade knives are difficult sometimes to date. There may be a duplicate out there somewhere that will help us help you.

Best regards,

Joe D. Dobbs
EyeBJoe

sorry this is part of the learning process we all wish we didn 't have to go thru [ if i had listened to my dad ]

EyeBJoe wrote:Mr. Sutton. If you will check further on AAPK as to how to post a picture, I would love to see your knife. There are a few of us that will try our best to give you all the information at our disposal to help date your knife. Proviso.........,...Eye Brand fixed blade knives are difficult sometimes to date. There may be a duplicate out there somewhere that will help us help you.

Best regards,

Joe D. Dobbs
EyeBJoe

i am gona keep this one so i made all the ring work and tang i also knew the eye mark would date it [ and yes my moto is "i believe it could be a little sharper"] but i do know when to stop sharpining !!

I have an old off yellow handle congress German Eye
It has only 2 eyes? Is this normal? The main blade shows little wear, but does not have an eye on it.

First, to AAPK.
Second, really need some good and in focus photos of the etch and the tang (front and rear). An overall photo will possibly be helpful.
There are instructions for loading photos at the top of the first page.
I love the old Eyes so will look forward to getting a look at your knife.

Ray

I believe this is the “first page” Ray referenced. https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/knife_forum/ Open the AAPK Tips & Tricks topic and then scroll down to the directions for posting pictures from your device.

Ken

Mumbleypeg wrote: ↑Sun Feb 25, 2024 11:42 pm I believe this is the “first page” Ray referenced. https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/knife_forum/ Open the AAPK Tips & Tricks topic and then scroll down to the directions for posting pictures from your device.

Ken

Thanks for the help, Ken. I was hoping you would check in on the post.

Ray