All About Pocket Knives

I've been surfing around looking at pictures of old Prussian hunting swords from circa 1880 - 1918.
I was struck by the magnificence of the craftsmanship displayed on these old swords. I was also struck by the fact that the engraving often has a common theme. The beautiful engraving on the blade often contains images of both the hunter and his prey: Deer, and wild hogs, along with an array of dogs.
The handles are usually of deer horn. The handles and sheaths are decorated with deer hooves, dog heads, oak trees, oak leaves, and acorns.
I also noticed many are decorated with seashells. At first glance these appear to have nothing in common. But there is hidden meaning in these symbols. Think about these from the viewpoint of a hunter, or a young man, or as a christian.

The oak is symbolic of strength and perfection. The oak leaf is often a symbol of the same. Thus the acorn is symbolic of "potential" and "growth". The wild boar brings to mind the wildness of nature, strength, and aggressiveness. A deer is symbolic of nature, compassion, grace, and natural beauty.

A deer's hoof is symbolic of balance, grace, and swiftness.

Now about that seashell:
A seashell is often symbolic of christianity - especially the act of baptism. If you study old religious paintings, St John the Baptist is often shown baptizing with water poured from a seashell. Many old catholic churches have baptismal in the form of a seashell.
The seashell is also a symbol of a journey, or pilgrimage. Many of the old Prussian hunting swords are also engraved with the words "GOTT MIT UNS", meaning "God with us". This again points to the religious aspect of life among the population of the late 1800s.

I hope you enjoy looking at these old works of art. I hope you can also appreciate the symbolism you will find on them.

Thank you for sharing these, beautiful things that I hadn't thought too much about before now, but now I sure want one!

Here are a few more pics. I love these things!

Another Knife Collector wrote:Thank you for sharing these, beautiful things that I hadn't thought too much about before now, but now I sure want one!

Me too Phil!
Out of my price range, but still a man can dream.

Great post and history! It is truly amazing the amount of work that went into creating one of these pieces that were actually more than a display piece.I can understand why they command such high prices. I have a modern version of one of these made by Hubertus that is done nicely but does not even compare to the pieces pictured.

A very interesting and thought provoking post. Thanks for sharing your information with us Blue !

Blue - I have admired those German hunting swords for a long time. Thanks for posting the photos. I suspect that the decorative deer and boar were chosen because the hunting sword was, at least in theory, to be used to dispatch wounded deer or boar. As for the other decorative elements, I never thought much about the symbolism. But man - can you imagine belting on one of those before you headed out on a frosty morning!

Great narrative on those swords. Learned a lot.

Bob

Beautiful stag get used on these!

They certainly are beautiful works of art but I kept wondering, what do you do with such a sword? Mel supposes they were to dispatch wounded game. That makes a lot sense but on the practical side I want to be a little more than a machete length from most wounded hogs or deer for that matter, say at least a spear length . Since these beauties are so ornate, could they have been maybe a status symbol of the day, part of a wealthy/nobleman's hunting dress code? Maybe like some of the brand names of today, say a Pro-Tech high end does the job but so will the Rough Rider for $10. During that time period I know they had firearms that were reliable for a necessary second shot. History always causes me to wonder about such .
The symbolism explanation is wonderful!
Treefarmer

treefarmer wrote:They certainly are beautiful works of art but I kept wondering, what do you do with such a sword? Mel supposes they were to dispatch wounded game. That makes a lot sense but on the practical side I want to be a little more than a machete length from most wounded hogs or deer for that matter, say at least a spear length

That was their exact purpose;to dispatch wounded animals. I seem to recall reading about hunters down in the southern USA who hunt wild boar using nothing but a large knife! Not my idea of fun but some view it as a challenge to give the animal more of a sporting chance.Yeah...I can see me staring down a 400 lb. angry pig charging at me with the sole intent of strewing my entrails all over the ground and standing there with a knife in my hand! Maybe in some other parallel universe.

I've seen a few TV shows where some dude might harvest a swine with a knife but most of the real adventurers I knew, caught hogs with catch dogs, tied 'em up and put 'em in a pen to be fed for a while in order to make decent pork of a piney wood rooter. Nowadays squealers are such a pest, they kill 'em at night with night vision scopes on top of their ARs. A little off topic but times have changed from hunting the wild boars of Europe with such a short ornate sword shown in this thread as to having to eliminate a destructive pest here in the USA.
Treefarmer

knife7knut wrote:

treefarmer wrote:They certainly are beautiful works of art but I kept wondering, what do you do with such a sword? Mel supposes they were to dispatch wounded game. That makes a lot sense but on the practical side I want to be a little more than a machete length from most wounded hogs or deer for that matter, say at least a spear length

That was their exact purpose;to dispatch wounded animals. I seem to recall reading about hunters down in the southern USA who hunt wild boar using nothing but a large knife! Not my idea of fun but some view it as a challenge to give the animal more of a sporting chance.Yeah...I can see me staring down a 400 lb. angry pig charging at me with the sole intent of strewing my entrails all over the ground and standing there with a knife in my hand! Maybe in some other parallel universe.

One thing to consider is that in the period those swords were made, a hunters rifle would be a one shot flintlock or maybe even matchlock. Reloading was not fast. And based on my experience hunting with dogs, a wounded deer or boar would be surrounded by a swirling pack of dogs that a hunter would not want to shoot into.

Another point is that the folks who bought those swords clearly embraced the mythos of medieval hunting. If you think about the legends of King Arthur there were many adventures that involve a hunt. Not to mention other folklore and stories. I would guess that any man who had one of those fine hunting swords loved those stories like I loved the stories of hunting here in Alabama when I was growing up.

search- saint Hubertus-click on wiki-under visions-he is german saint of hunting-this is why the common theme-made to put wounded deer out cleanly-I have a puma-very nice-but come kind of stable (for now) ivory looking celluloid-called german hunting/forestry daggers-used by german hunting association--look it up..

make that SOME kind of...