Vintage J A Henckels 10″ Chef Knife Carbon Steel Solingen 1950’s Era

J. A. Henckels chef knife made in the old style; hand ground and forged after initial drop forging with pinned and riveted European walnut handle. 

This knife was sharpened down and a bit thick behind the edge, it has been re-ground and is ready for fine work again, the profile is a bit narrower of course with a bit more flatness to the heel. The markings are gone but this solid wood (dyed pear wood?) 3 large nickel riveted handle with the square heel handle juncture is classic early post war Henckels. 

This knife has been re-ground and thinned behind the edge on a large 3 foot diameter Japanese water stone wheel (kaiten mizu toishi) and then resurfaced with a medium fine finish, our take on an old style grinding and finishing technique. While the particular wheel used to refurbish this knife is typically used in Japanese knife making it is very similar to the old grinding wheels used to shape European and American hand ground cutlery. A convex face to a blade greatly increases a knife’s performance as there is less sticking as there is on a flat face and the blade does not get thick behind the edge nearly as fast as with a flat faced blade. Being that we are often working with old blades that need re-shaping and might have been rusted expect some minor imperfections, we try to give a fresh start to our re-ground blades with an eye towards their original grind style and keeping as much metal is needed on a blade when ever possible. Check out Bernal Cutlery co founder Josh Donald’s book Sharp to see these wheels in use and more about their history in Europe and Japan. 

Steel Type: Carbon Steel
Handle: riveted wood handle
Total Length: 381mm
Edge Length: 252mm
Handle to Tip Length: 248mm
Blade Height: 50mm
Thickness: 4.5mm
Handle Length: 134mm
Weight: 190g 
Hand Orientation: Ambidextrous