All About Pocket Knives

Can anyone help dating this knife?
my goins book has J.A. Schmidt as 1829 to present it says it was in Barmen Germany till 1900 then was in Solingen Germany till 1950. It is a J.A. Schmidt Germany so would this be before 1900 or after? When was the first lady leg knife made and by whom?

Well Kingfish, Bad News. You either made everyone here mad at you at some point OR DUN! DUN! DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN! You stumped them Good Luck

I don't know i do piss people off for a living so...... but i would figure someone would know who and when the lady leg pattern was first produced. the J.A. SCHMIDT may be a little harder, out off all my knives and the thousands i see every year I don't think I've seen another to compare the tang stamps with (weird for a knife from 1829 to present) but someone told me when they moved to Solingen they marked them Solingen Germany this one is marked Germany without the Solingen. but i was hoping to get more imput from someone more familiar with the brand. also this knife is all metal.

Leg figural knives have been made since Roman times.

The lady leg knife pattern has been made since the 1870`s in England as far as I know.

Germany was quite keen on figural knives from the late 1800s onward. These took the shapes of many things from fish and dogs to wine bottles and pistols. "Leg" pattern knives were less common and mostly only found from the late 1800s to very early 1900s when they seemed to have lost favor while other figures carried on like "shoe" styled knives. Below are two early German "leg" types from 1888 and 1908, I would say that your model falls into this time frame.

I didn't realize how powerful the word Stumped could be (or did I?)... My dad was guessing early 1920's hehe trying to pin it down to a timeframe within a decade hehe I'm glad he doesn't gamble. I think a realistic guess would be from about the first two decades of the last century... And I'm leaning towards the first. I've never seen that knife or another leg knife shaped like that... Very cool There was a guy around here that thought the lady leg knife was the ugliest knife pattern ever invented. It made me wonder what teem he was playing for and I guess all of the crazy Chinese fantasy knives are A OK in his book... SHEESH... I like it

thanks, i just wish someone who is familiar with the brand would know if they started putting solingen over the germany after 1900 when they moved or was it later or did they never put solingen on them? a guy told me it was before they moved to solingen if it didnt have solingen on it but i still havent seen another with the solingen to compare. for a knife company thats been in business for almost 200 years i would think there would be plenty of examples out there.

Have you tried to see if they are still in business?


http://www.dreiturm-solingen.de/set%20eng.htm


Tim

my goins encyclopedia has them as being from 1829 to present . it also says they were purchased in 1950 by kuno ritter and are still in business,they make cutlery, edge tools, and hardware items. but the book was printed in 1998

tnkingfish wrote:thanks, i just wish someone who is familiar with the brand would know if they started putting solingen over the germany after 1900 when they moved or was it later or did they never put solingen on them? a guy told me it was before they moved to solingen if it didnt have solingen on it but i still havent seen another with the solingen to compare. for a knife company thats been in business for almost 200 years i would think there would be plenty of examples out there.

While Germany imported more knives to the United States in the late 1800s to mid 1900s than any other country, information is often difficult to find. This is due primarily to the fact that city of Solingen in Germany was bombed heavily at the end of WW2 by the allies. Most of the cutlery buildings, machines, paperwork, and subsequent history were completely destroyed. A fair bit of information exists for the major German cutlery firms such as "Henckels", "Boker", and "F. Herder", but the majority of lesser known companies like "J.A.Schmidt" have very little information or knife examples available for study.

This is my guess,if it were made in Soingen it would say that on the knife.My guess is before.

Hi all. I'm new to AAPK, but have been collecting for a few years now. Wondering what you can tell me about this knife. Looking for manufacturer name and possible age. Thanks in advance!

Your shoe knife is from SWAN WERKS (Peter Altenbach & Sohne), in OHLIGS, Germany. Across the river from Solingen .1920 to the present. Age? Probably nearer the older end. Neat little figural piece. Typically German. J.O'.

BTW; Look like genuine tortoise shell, but may be celluloid. J.O'.