F J Richtig history of a man who did take it with him

[lt632ret]

I was considering what to post since I have been in a bit of a doldrum. I was thinking about an idea on a couple of Schrades when I saw this knife laying around. It is a project I cannot complete right now ( for reasons I will explain ). F J Richtig made knives for about 50 years from the 30tys to the 70tys. He was born in Nebraska in 1887. becme an apprentice blacksmith in 1905 and in 1916 began experimenting with electric heat treating of steel. in 1925 he started producing knives. He produced many styles of cast aluminum handled kitchen knives as well as aluminum and regular handled hunting knives. Now all that being said you might say " SO WHAT" . Well FJ was special you see he developed a revolutionary new process. In fact his process was so unusual that on Nov 18 1936 he did something no other knife maker ever did he made Ripleys believe it or not. You see Part of Richtigs show when he was selling knives was to cut slices of buggy axles ( like it was bologna ) using his knife and a hammer. So Ripley made him the subject for that days cartoon. The hardening steel process he invented has never been duplicated.

FJ produced knives until around 1977. I recently acquired one of the bread knife models that originally sold for a dollar. I paid around 150 (not a dollar fifty one hundred and fifty. ) This probably explains the axiom a fool and his money are soon parted. I am including a picture of this knife and a catalogue of the line of knives as well as the write up on this information from Levine 4 page 374 ( where I got most of the info for this posting). Notice the FJR stamp in the Aluminum handle and the date of 1973 making this one of the later knives he made. Interestingly I have found these tough to find you would think that after making them for 50 years they should be easier to find. So check those yard sales. These will fetch a few bucks from suckers ( I mean collectors ) like me.

Now the reason I have not completed the project ( a display of all these items ) is that I am searching for the old Ripleys cartoon showing FJ at work which i am finding harder to locate than the knife. By the way I am sure that somewhere down the line I have seen that Ripleys drawing but if i ever find it again is another question. So until then it remains another undone thing to do.

The thing I always like about the FJ story is that he died with his secret. Good for him. In this age where we know every thing and answer all questions with new smug catch phrases and what ever theory is in vogue. It is reassuring to know that some old blacksmith was smarter than us all. I know a lot of knife makers and I always ask them about FJs secret and they never have an answer. I always keep FJ in mind when I think about all this apparently un wanted history I am surrounded with perhapes like his knives it would be more appreciated by a later generation and should be kept a secret until it is found again in the future. Perhapes I can take it with me just like FJ did. LT PS if anyone every runs across that Ripley drawing please let me know.

[ButchTN]

Hi LT. Great story The fact that this man invented a process to make steel so hard it could slice an axle and then took that knowledge with him to the grave is priceless. I am always amazed by the wealth of knowledge and information you have on cutlery history. Thanks for sharing that story.

Butch

[El Lobo]

Very interesting, as always, LT.

As an aside, Richtig was featured in the Knives '84 Annual.....

Knives '84 Check Availability
A Knife that Killed a Lion Martins, Theo
The Importance of Being Henry (D.E. Henry) Edmondson, J.R.
The Courthouse Traders Voyles, Bruce
The Opinel Story Jorion, Serge
The Kris: Malaysia's Bowie Knife Halsey, Ashley Jr.
F.J. Richtig: Believe it or Not Cutler Lambert, Glen
Knifemaking Techniques

http://www.knifeworld.com/knives84.html

...maybe you could contact them and see if the Believe It Or Not drawing is in that story. Or, maybe you have this book? I don't, or you'd be welcome to have it.

Just a thought, of course. Thanks again for sharing.

Bill

[galvanic1882]

Hi Rich, Great write up. I have been very lucky with finding Richtig's. Attached are pics of mine. I have a copy of the cartoon and as soon as I get back home on Thursday I will send a copy to you.

I've put these on the site before but in another forum

[lt632ret]

And there it is I knew I had seen it. Here is the dogone Ripleys now me and dale won't have to try to scratch that itch no more. He even contacted the Ripley archives and they didn't have it . Thankyou woofer thankyou for the offer mike looks like i have a copy. Mike. PS Those are dandys and High enders. PPS Ok now I guess i have no excuse not to do that display. It is a lot easier when you know where to look 84 was right between 83 and 85 in book case. DUHHH. I probably would have hit it in a year or two. The way the memory is going I wouldn't have remembered anyway.

[galvanic1882]

No problem Rich anything to help. Another pic of the last of mine.

[lt632ret]

Thanks again. Ok here is the display much like any thing else in my life I find it best to do when it is on my mind ( such as it is ). Not the fanciest but it does preserve the history. Now where to put it. Well I know some of you out there might tell me where to put it . However I choose not to so it becomes another one on the pile. Rather than on the piles Thanks to all for your help. LT PS Pardon my vulgarity

[galvanic1882]

Looks Great Rich!! and oh yes my virgin ears or in this case eyes.

Look at the forum on Hawkbills and you will see my latest purchase. It is a hawkbill with blades you can take in and out much like the Nagle Re-Blades. Wish I could find a Nagle with pearl handles I can afford.

Regards Mike

[lt632ret]

When did mere mundain ducats (ie money ) ever stop you before. My previous listing was like two thirds of a pun the PU part. Once you have the money who the heck will have a pearl Nagle you did say Nagel not Navel or bagel which in pearl might be esier to find. LT

[CCBill]

I'm sure that a lot of you remember me posting this picture some time back. When I recalled the story that came with the knife, many years ago, I sent the following letter to Lt and also to Michael Lossico(galvanic 1882). I haven't heard from galvanic 1882, but Lt asked me to re-post the picture and include the story, in hope that it might uncover some additional information. Any info will most certainly be appreciated. Lt thinks that this could possibly be a Richtig knife.



I posted this picture several months ago and the thread about Richtig got me to wondering.
The man I bought it from was a WW2 veteran. He is long gone now. He was born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska. He told me that there was a Nebraska knife maker, that was making knives to give to local boys that were going off to war. Said all you had to do, if you were from Nebraska, and were going to the Military, was send him your name and address and he would mail you a knife(at no charge). If you chose to visit his shop, he would try to make one to your specs. He recieved this one in the mail.
I can't find a marking anywhere on this knife. I suppose it could have been made by any number of people, but with the aluminum handle and the story from many years ago, who knows.
I love the old knife. It is well made and SCARY sharp.
What do you think about it? I value your opinion. Thank you.
...Mild(not wild) Bill...

[justold52]

First thing that came to my mind was. WOW people back then really did care about helping the young men going to war. I bet the man was aloud to take this with him back then too.

I am sure today’s army will not let you carry some thing like this or even a new SOG knife. The media is so down on military helping others it all most hurts our men as much and a bloody wound would.

I sure hope you find out the name of this knife maker. I will buy one of his knives just from reading this CCBILL. Thanks for showing this the 2nd time I missed it the first time.

[W5RWU]

Nice history Guys! It made for a good read . Also made me wonder
why the revolutionary new process that F J Richtig invented has never been duplicated? This is a true mystery ! Thanks for posting
this !
See Ya Randy

[galvanic1882]

Hi Bill, I am sorry but I did not see the picture before. I have something you can look for on the knife which might help. Look on the top of the guard were it meets the blade. See if there is any tool marks there. I have seen some with 2 lines or grooves which Richtig used to line up the blade. I can't get a good picture of them but will keep trying. I hope this helps. You also can send a picture to Harlan Suedmier in Nabraska and he might be able to help. When I get home on Thursday I will get his info to you.

Regards Mike

[CCBill]

Thanks for the replies. Looking forward to getting the info on Mr. Suedmeir. Will gladly contact him.
We will be out of town, Monday- Thursday. Flying to Indianapolis on a business/ pleasure trip. In other words, Debbie is going to have to work and I'm just going to bum around. Anybody got any ideas as to what I should do while I'm there? Never been there before.
...CCBill...

[lt632ret]

Drink. fight. chase wimmen. gamble. Same as any new town. LT PS Or you could go to the park and feed the pidgeons. That is fun also if you can get them close and crush there heads. Some have said i need a serious introspective but I say I don't need no stinking introspective. Well you did ask for opinions. LT

[CCBill]

WOW! Great ideas Lt. Who EVER said you needed help???
...CCBill...

[lt632ret]

Thats what I like about you Bill you aint no Wus. LT

[jonet143]

here is how the actual article appeared.

[lt632ret]

Thankyou LT

[1967redrider]

Searching for info on a WM Enders EO folder and I stumbled upon this old FJ Richtig fixed blade post. Here's a few shots of what's left of a skinning knife I have. Haven't tried hammering it through a bolt the way Richtig did. Wouldn't someone be able to figure out his heat treating process through scientific analysis?

[lt632ret]

I am the curator of the Wawarsing historical and knife museum in Napanoch NY. ( theknifemuseum.com)
I was also affialiated with Schrade and know quite a few knife makers I always ask that same question and the answer is no one knows or has figured it out. I have a display in the museum dedicated to this man and an example of his knives and a reprint of his catalogue line of knives. I agree with you in that someone should be able to replicate this steel. However I know of no one who has. LT

[Miller Bro's]

Read the entire documentary, fascinating stuff!

https://clarksonhistory.wordpress.com/2 ... tig-knife/


The secret has been out for 16 years now.

But scientific curiosity is not to be denied. Twenty three years after Frank Richtig’s death, Dale Novak, a relative of Frank’s and an excellent knife maker himself, sent two of Richtig’s knives to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Two metallurgists studied the samples and published the results of their analyses (Jeffrey Wadsworth and Donald Lesuer. 2000. The knives of Frank J. Richtig as featured in Ripley’s Believe It or Not. Materials Characterization: An International Journal on Materials Structure and Behavior. Volume 45, pages 315-326). The scientists subjected the Richtig blades to a battery of tests: measurements of hardness, chemical composition, tensile stress, and high magnification analyses of the steel’s microstructure. And for good measure, they used one of the Richtig knives to hammer through a 6-mm-diameter steel bar without damage to the blade (a test that caused a contemporary high-carbon steel kitchen knife to chip).

So, for those of you who have waited all your lives to learn the secret of the unbelievable hardness and enduring sharpness of Frank Richtig’s knives, here are Wadsworth and Lesuer’s conclusions: “Our best estimate of the Richtig secret recipe is as follows:
1. AISI 1090 or 1095 steel was used.
2. The steel was austenitized at a temperature just slightly above (e.g., 30 degrees C) the A1 temperature.
3. The steel was austempered at 300-400 degrees C.”

Or, in layman’s terms, Wadsworth and Lesuer deduced that the knives were made with ordinary carbon (1%) steel that was heated to nearly 1400 degrees F, rapidly cooled (in a second or less) to around 600 degrees F, and then held at that temperature for “tens of seconds.” Outside of the laboratory, they noted that such rapid cooling could be accomplished by quenching the thin blades into an isothermal salt or molten lead bath held at the appropriate temperature.

The scientists observed that “the use of an austempering process by Richtig is quite remarkable, since the process is generally recognized to have been introduced by Bain and Davenport in the 1930s. Since the Richtig knives, made with the secret heat-treating recipe, were famous by the 1930s, it is possible that Richtig discovered the austempering process before the two well-known metallurgists were generally recognized for discovering the process.”

Not a carnival trick, Frank Richtig’s knives were the real deal. And it appears that our Village Smithy was the first to discover the austempering process that made them so hard – before the later development and promotion of the process by professional metallurgists.

[lt632ret]

Thank you, that was great I have looked for similar information for years. Schrade used a rapid cooling method for some of there knives to increase the rockwell ( it was a machine the blades were put in it ) Dave Swinden showed it to me once but frankly at the time i really did not understand all he was telling me. When talking to Dave about technical production methods it was not unusual for even those well versed in the topic to get lost, and my technical acumen is somewhat lacking. His knowledge was amazing. In any event thankyou for the information. I had never seen that documentary before it explains alot except why you still do not really see knives with the same capabilities being produced today. unless someone knows of someone who is producing them. Thanks again LT

[wlf]

Super find John.

I would love to have a big kitchen knife of his. I use a kitchen knife as much or more than a pocket knife and do not own a nice kitchen knife???

[wlf]

By the way John, Enderes was a official( I have to look him up) in the Simmons Hdwe. Co. ,and Wm. Enderes was a secondary line of theirs.