More Bodacious Bowie knives...
Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 12:24 pm
Mrs Denis and I were in Vienna for New Year. It's cold there, I can tell you... the "Wiener Kaffeehaus Kultur" clearly came about because no-one wanted to be outdoors for more than ten minutes at a stretch. Hence the preponderance of warm beverages laced with alcohol...
A view of St Stephen's Square, with the zig-zag roof of the cathedral.
As is my wont, I went a-wandering. Vienna is particularly good for that, as it's one of the few European capitals which has not been taken over by huge retail-store chains.
There are still many mom-and-pop shops, each specialising in selling a particular product: glove & scarf shops, milliners, walking-stick sellers, locksmiths, toolsmiths, artisan-jewellers, clockmakers, saddlers, dealers in hairbrushes and shaving paraphernalia, and so on.
In my mooching, I discovered a little shop with chisels and sharp tools for woodworkers. I went in to buy a small packet of Arkansas stones, and discovered that I was in an Aladdin's cave of all things sharp and pointy; chef's knives, penknives, rasps, spokeshaves, gouges, chisels, planes of every kind imaginable, parers, and on and on... The shop was "old school" - walls covered floor-to-ceiling with labelled wooden drawers, and the glass-topped counter was also full of wooden drawers. A place for everything, and everything in its place. Of course, the emporium of sharp was run by a little old lady.
While I was comparing Arkansas stones (black, white, smooth, rough, available with or without wooden cases), I spotted something in the bottom drawer of the counter which had to be the stag handle of a hunting knife.
Of course, I asked about it. "Oh, those", said the little old lady, lifting out a drawer full of dusty leather scabbards, "these were my late husband's favourite - he was a hunter. Nobody buys them these days anymore." She proceeded to empty a half-dozen bowie knives out onto the counter, each finer than the last.
I mentioned that I was a hunter too, and would she mind if I took a closer look. Of course not...
We got to chatting, about hunting, and Austria, and travelling from Ireland, and learning German, and the weather, and how beautiful Vienna is, and how no-one hunts anymore, and how wild boar are a menace in the suburbs, and on and on...
"Do you have prices for these?"
(Looks for a big black ledger on the shelf.) "Only in Schilling... for some I'll just have to guess. How many would you like?"
"Well, that depends a bit on the price... I don't want to blow the holiday budget."
"(A substantial sum) for the lot?"
"Ah, no; I'd have to eat at McDonald's for the rest of the holidays."
"We can't have that! I'll let you have them for (a rather better price)".
"Done."
So here they are for your enlightenment and enterainment; bodacious German Bowie knives from Vienna. They were still priced in Schilling, so definitely pre-1999 stock, and some are marked "West Germany" or "Western Germany", which indicates pre-1989 manufacture - from the good old days of handcrafted Solingen steel knives. Sadly, some of the old German manufacturers whose knives you see in this lot are no more, and their trademarks were sold to modern-day Chinese importers of inferior products.
Widder Solingen, 6 1/2 inch blade. "Original Bowie Knife" in Gothic script etched on the obverse. Maker's mark on the reverse. Curved steel finger-guard; stag handle, with handmade brass rivets; leather thong/lanyard. Widder knives were made by Karl Piehl in Solingen, another artisan/ manufacturer which has since fallen by the wayside.
Widder, Solingen, 6 inch blade. "Original Bowie Knife" in Gothic script etched on the obverse. Straight brass finger-guard; stag handle, with handmade brass rivets. embossed scabbard, marked "Solingen, Western Germany".
More in the next post...
A view of St Stephen's Square, with the zig-zag roof of the cathedral.
As is my wont, I went a-wandering. Vienna is particularly good for that, as it's one of the few European capitals which has not been taken over by huge retail-store chains.
There are still many mom-and-pop shops, each specialising in selling a particular product: glove & scarf shops, milliners, walking-stick sellers, locksmiths, toolsmiths, artisan-jewellers, clockmakers, saddlers, dealers in hairbrushes and shaving paraphernalia, and so on.
In my mooching, I discovered a little shop with chisels and sharp tools for woodworkers. I went in to buy a small packet of Arkansas stones, and discovered that I was in an Aladdin's cave of all things sharp and pointy; chef's knives, penknives, rasps, spokeshaves, gouges, chisels, planes of every kind imaginable, parers, and on and on... The shop was "old school" - walls covered floor-to-ceiling with labelled wooden drawers, and the glass-topped counter was also full of wooden drawers. A place for everything, and everything in its place. Of course, the emporium of sharp was run by a little old lady.
While I was comparing Arkansas stones (black, white, smooth, rough, available with or without wooden cases), I spotted something in the bottom drawer of the counter which had to be the stag handle of a hunting knife.
Of course, I asked about it. "Oh, those", said the little old lady, lifting out a drawer full of dusty leather scabbards, "these were my late husband's favourite - he was a hunter. Nobody buys them these days anymore." She proceeded to empty a half-dozen bowie knives out onto the counter, each finer than the last.
I mentioned that I was a hunter too, and would she mind if I took a closer look. Of course not...
We got to chatting, about hunting, and Austria, and travelling from Ireland, and learning German, and the weather, and how beautiful Vienna is, and how no-one hunts anymore, and how wild boar are a menace in the suburbs, and on and on...
"Do you have prices for these?"
(Looks for a big black ledger on the shelf.) "Only in Schilling... for some I'll just have to guess. How many would you like?"
"Well, that depends a bit on the price... I don't want to blow the holiday budget."
"(A substantial sum) for the lot?"
"Ah, no; I'd have to eat at McDonald's for the rest of the holidays."
"We can't have that! I'll let you have them for (a rather better price)".
"Done."
So here they are for your enlightenment and enterainment; bodacious German Bowie knives from Vienna. They were still priced in Schilling, so definitely pre-1999 stock, and some are marked "West Germany" or "Western Germany", which indicates pre-1989 manufacture - from the good old days of handcrafted Solingen steel knives. Sadly, some of the old German manufacturers whose knives you see in this lot are no more, and their trademarks were sold to modern-day Chinese importers of inferior products.
Widder Solingen, 6 1/2 inch blade. "Original Bowie Knife" in Gothic script etched on the obverse. Maker's mark on the reverse. Curved steel finger-guard; stag handle, with handmade brass rivets; leather thong/lanyard. Widder knives were made by Karl Piehl in Solingen, another artisan/ manufacturer which has since fallen by the wayside.
Widder, Solingen, 6 inch blade. "Original Bowie Knife" in Gothic script etched on the obverse. Straight brass finger-guard; stag handle, with handmade brass rivets. embossed scabbard, marked "Solingen, Western Germany".
More in the next post...