All About Pocket Knives

R J Richter (Rudolph J Richter) was my Grandfather who worked with my Father Rudolph C Richter as an importer and wholesaler of cutlery in Arlington MA, I would like to share my limited knowledge of this business and hear from anyone who may be able to add to my knowledge of this business.

Robert J Richter
283 Elm Street
North Reading, MA 01864
[email protected]

Welcome to AAPK Bob!
You are more than welcome to post information here in the Knife Lore forum.
It would probably get exposed to the proper crowd in this forum.

You can post information and pictures in here.
Once you start posting information I'm sure more collectors will find this topic and post what they know and the knives that they have.


Welcome aboard,
Dale

All the R.J. Richter knives I have are high quality. I will have to dig some out and post pictures here.

Can you post a picture of your grandfather here?

Will do, give me a day or so

Welcome to AAPK. I look forward to seeing those pictures.

Bobscomp wrote:R J Richter (Rudolph J Richter) was my Grandfather who worked with my Father Rudolph C Richter as an importer and wholesaler of cutlery in Arlington MA, I would like to share my limited knowledge of this business and hear from anyone who may be able to add to my knowledge of this business.

Robert J Richter
283 Elm Street
North Reading, MA 01864
[email protected]

Welcome to the forum Robert from an old neighbor.I grew up in Saugus and lived for awhile in Tewksbury.Used to go to Kitty's a lot for some great food.
I will have to dig out my R.J.Richter knives(I have quite a few)and post them here.Don't have any information to share about the firm but look forward to learning anything you might be able to supply.

attached is a picture of R J Richter, my grandfather

I wasn't aware that the company was based so close to home.That is probably why I used to see a lot of Richter knives around when I was growing up.I still have a nice 11"(open)switchblade marked R.J.Richter Italy that I've have since junior high school(1956-57).Had to repllace the handles but it still fires hard.

As best as I know, My Grandfather was a wholesaler of sporting goods and cuttlery in germany before the war, he may have been a manufacturer, but I have no records or evidence of that, I do know he went accross europe selling, then some bad things happened durring the Nazi era to him and my father (his son) during which he may have lost his Manufacturing business if there was one, and at the end of the war my father was released from a nazi prison and they moved to boston (Arlington) and started a wholesale import business of sporting goods, I do know that he negotiated the rights to sell Victorinox knives from the current owner of that right for USA here in Boston, since I have talked to him and his son, they tried to sell me my fathers old Typwrighter back. that the father had bought from my father when he closed down in the late 60's. after my grandfather passed away, and my grandmother bankrupted the business by withdrawing all assets of the company at the time. and we moved to Germany and my father then became Managing Director of Bulova watches in Germany (he had a Harvard MBA). I can remeber the small brick front shop and basement, in Arlington, with 1 employee who must have been a carpenter who made the display cases for sporting goods shows, and also built a model train layout for me for my birthday one year. I can remember the red background in the display cases, and I can remeber going to some of the sporting goods shows but I was very young, since we moved from the US when I was 6. My Grandfather was German born, My Grandmother was American (grew up on Huntington Ave in Boston) went to germany to study Piano and met my Grandfather, somehow they got to Chicago were my Father was born, but ended up in germany at the start of the war since my grandfathers business was there.
Unfortunatly I do not have a whole lot more information except a fork and knife set with antler handles that got ruined because my wife put them in the dishwasher, and another knife set that is carfully tucked away from her hands

Wow, Robert......great story from your family history.
I was not familiar with Richter knives.
I can say that I learned something today.
Thanks for sharing the history.
AND.....I almost forgot......Welcome to AAPK!

Paul

Wecome to AAPK. I look forward to learning more.

Here are some of my R.J.Richter knives Robert.The three automatics are all marked differently:the large one I got around 1957 and is stamped R.J.Richter Italy and originally had horn handles on it but they got broken.I made the clear plastic ones from plexiglass and installed them.Notice the lock button is missing but the lock still functions.The handles are painted with metallic paint on the underside.
The jigged black scaled one is still very stiff and opens hard.The blade has been sharpened quite a bit.Not sure where I got that one but it has to have been 30 years anyway.It is marked simply R.J.Richter with no country of origin although it should be Germany.
The jigged bone handle one has a broken spring and I haven't had much luck trying to extract the broken piece to repair it.Someone took a grinder to the blade before I got it.This one is marked R.J.Richter Solingen Germany.
The deer foot handled knife is marked R.J.Richter Solingen Germany and was obtained in a bunch of knives I traded with a friend of mine.
The Bowie was given to me by another friend(along with 2 switchblades)that his brother obtained in Germany when he was in the Army.The blade is very thick and bent slightly to one side.At first I thought it was damaged until I relaized that by doing this it was much more comfortable to carry and the butt didn't dig into your side.The escutcheon plate has the name,"Crazy" scratched into it.Not sure of the significance of that.

Nice knives Ray!

Yes nice pics, thanks

I have a r J richter made in Italy switchblade 11" long anyone know about it?

Wow I missed seeing this thread before. RJ Richter had some knives with their stamp made in the USA as well, as evidenced by this knife, made by Ulster, most likely early to mid 1960's.

Welcome Dustin 351 ... and nice knife addition Steve to the thread.. and an Ulster too

Interesting... I never saw this thread nor was aware of this maker in MA so I learned something new ... Levines doesn't list a location for RJ Richter just a Swed/Germany importer with a question mark and ca 1963 - under notes Levines has "fantasy Nazi pen knives" .. I haven't checked Goins nor Phil P's New England Cutlery book but don't remember it being in the latter.. Nonetheless the info provided by this thread clears it up quite nicely as to the background by Bobscomp (doesn't look like Bobscomp the grandson who knows better than anyone has been back since 2014) and additional info and knives by Ray, and now by Steve...

Dustin - you would have to post photos of your switchblade with tang stamp and perhaps one of our automatic knife collectors with knowledge may be able to tell you who made it - there are books on switchblades made it Italy so probably too many makers to guess without a photo..... obviously as an importer it could be anybody.. but this also suggests he did not import knives only from Germany but in Italy and the US as well by Steve's example of one that was Ulster made...

To me it is interesting that MA had so many retailers/distributors of cutlery in contrast to CT for example (many in MA retailed high quality knives) - though it is important to point out that MA had some real quality cutleries as well!!!

Dustin351 wrote:I have a r J richter made in Italy switchblade 11" long anyone know about it?

I was looking to sell this knife anyone interested?

I'm new to the site, just looking for information on these knives. Well here's one to add to your list. It's a small Puukko fixed blade stamped Norway. I may be interested in the switch blade. This sheath was not the original, from other pictures I found on Google it came with a leather sheath with floral stamping.

Welcome to AAPK!
I don't know about your knife but someone should be along soon who does know
Welcome aboard!

I was recently following an R.J. Richter stiletto switch on eBay just to see what it would sell for, but the eBay po-leese snagged it before it sold.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/123423568527?_t ... 527.N36.S2

to AAPK!

Here is a Richter knife I picked up today.

Here's a Richter ram horn picklock I obtained a few days ago. It cleaned up pretty good after about an hour of polishing.

Love those handles.