HJ Fahrtenmesser, Early Motto Type, My First

[Von Ritt]

So many years have pasted by with desires of having one of my favorites. Finally has happened. Please present your opinions and observations on this keeper. Some other items have crossed my path these last few months. So little time to get them in front of the extremely helpful crew on WR.eu. Wishing for some information on this HJ Fahrtenmesser.

This was offered to me by a 78 year old man. His 81 year old sister has had it in her possession since the 1960's. She only remembers seeing it back then when her then boyfriend brought it home. She does not remember where he found it. My limited search and knowledge building attempts have provided some interesting findings for me. The maker is K. & Co. Motto present, early grip style, sans ricasso. During its journey it has been sharpened along with removal of the black finish on the scabbard. Have a couple questions hopefully will be addressed.

1. Did HJ ever remove the black paint or anodized (not able to confirm early models) surface from the scabbard for whatever reason? Perhaps for parade use. Limited knowledge on this part.
2. Does anything about the scabbard not appear original? Limited knowledge on this part.
3. What date was this manufacturered? 1933 or 1934? Limited knowledge on this part.

Hope these pictures display enough detail for your findings. Many thanks to all.

>>>Please excuse the disoriented stacking. Late for work, will correct this evening. Thank you for your patience.

Best,
-Von Ritt

[Von Ritt]

[Anderson]

An authentic HJ knife made by Ernst Knecht & Co of Solingen-Wustenhof. K & Co were early makers of the HJ knife and had the RZM number code of M7/11 on later made knives. This is an early knife without ricasso and as such will date from the 1933-36 period, everything looks correct IMO, including the scabbard. It appears to be a blued scabbard, as some were in this early period. It would have been manufactured with a blued finish and possibly later over painted black. But I'm more inclined to think the hanger was blacked from the original brown and that is the trace of paint seen on the scabbard. This maker we don't see that often and this is a nice knife.

[Von Ritt]

Thank you Anderson for your information.

Any help or direction on locating a leather washer?

[Anderson]

Many of these early types lost their leather buffer. Not likely to find any NOS these days but you might be able to make one.

[Anderson]

In answer to the OP's question sent to me about leather buffers, I have posted a picture of one of Gerrit's HJ knives already posted in the thread "Early no ricasso thin blade by Gustav Spitzer". This is about as good as you will get to see:

[Larry C]

Interesting detail on the no ricasso knives is that little " hook " feature seen on that part of the blade that holds the washer in place so that it doesnt slide off.

[gerrit]

Nice Knecht, the bufferpad is often missing on these early knives, and im with Peter with the leather of the scabbard.
having still the brown buttoncap and brown paint on the rivet it would have been brown when it left the plant.

cheers
Ger

[Dean]

Very nice HJ knife. I really love the way these first patterns were made. I don't see anything wrong with yours either, in fact it's pretty much exactly the same as one from my collection by the same maker and pattern, so it's interesting to compare just how consistently K. & Co.were ... And yet I still find myself wondering..." Just how many knives between yours and nine were made, do you think?"....Hmm.
.P.S..In so much as to avoid risk of "Hijack" to this fine thread, I didn't include any images supporting my questionable claims... Without permission first