I can't believe I won this auction.

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Ericfg

Ericfg

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I figured this would go well over $200.
ebay set.jpg

It got one bid. One bid. This auction just ended so I haven't got them yet but, holy toledo.... They are all Henckels knives. All carbon steel. All pre-1950.
As you may have noticed all I collect/use is Henckels/Zwilling so when I saw this pop up last week I watched the heck out of it.
That 102-12 looks to have low mileage to it, as do the rest. The patina evident is off the charts, IMO And I don't see any heavy rust pitting.
I'm on vacation at the moment and possibly a bit drunk, but I was so surprised this fell into my lap I just had to share with you.
 
birdsfan said:
Really nice score dude! Can't wait to see what they look like when you clean them up!
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Thanks. I'm still at a loss for words on this deal.

BTW, seller says this was 'granpa's kit'. The wear/patina/profile on these blades certainly looks like that may have been the case. The lack of wear on the Zwilling stamp on the scales on three of the knives is very intriguing.
 
birdsfan said:
It is a nice assortment to play with. What does the stamp on the nogent-style say?
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100-9. Evidently it also carries the 'Grand Prize, St.Louis&Paris' stamping as well.
BTW, I saw a different knife manufacturer using the "Grand Prize" stamping for the first time a couple days ago, .Landers, Frary and Clark.
 
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Oh my word! They're fantastic, congrats :).

Can't wait to see them cleaned up and back to working order, though most of them seem like they'll not need much at all.
 
Ericfg said:
I figured this would go well over $200.
View attachment 195422
It got one bid. One bid. This auction just ended so I haven't got them yet but, holy toledo.... They are all Henckels knives. All carbon steel. All pre-1950.
As you may have noticed all I collect/use is Henckels/Zwilling so when I saw this pop up last week I watched the heck out of it.
That 102-12 looks to have low mileage to it, as do the rest. The patina evident is off the charts, IMO And I don't see any heavy rust pitting.
I'm on vacation at the moment and possibly a bit drunk, but I was so surprised this fell into my lap I just had to share with you.
Click to expand...
 
superworrier said:
I want to share in your joy OP but I know very little about these vintage knives in terms of rarity/value. But it seems like it's awesome
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It's not like they're super valuable. Each generally worth well less than a new J-knife from a good maker. It's just there are a few here that really appreciate vintage Western knives and this one deal was like a perfect knife storm so there's a lotta hoopla I guess. ;)
 
superworrier said:
Yeah I'm not expecting them to be super super valuable, but I have 0 reference point for this. If you told me any price from free to 1000 dollars I wouldn't be able to know if it was BS or not.
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In my experience collecting and following these ebay auctions for vintage knives, the first two would be pretty inexpensive, maybe $5-$20 each. The 8 inch henckels is an unusual one given the nogent handle, but it's definitely had some life out of it given the swale in the middle. I'd expect that one to go between $30-$60. The 102-12 is a rarer size and looks in pretty original condition. I wouldn't be surprised to see one of those go for somewhere between $100-$200. For reference I just sold a 102-10 the other day for $100 (I had paid $93 including shipping about a year ago). The bullnose slicers, maybe around $20 each.
 
Ericfg said:
it also carries the 'Grand Prize, St.Louis&Paris' stamping as well.
BTW, I saw a different knife manufacturer using the "Grand Prize" stamping for the first time a couple days ago. Can't remember who it was, Lamson maybe?
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It was Landers, Frary and Clark, not Lamson. Evidently we can't edit our posts after a certain amount of time.
 
Well...it's arrived! And it's mostly good. The box got some crushing damage and slightly bent the two long slicers. It's pretty minor, hopefully I can gently coax them back to true.
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The box included about a gallon or more of wood shavings!?!?! What a mess unpacking that.
edit: Oh, and it included a length of toilet paper wadded up and then tied in a knot. *** is that?
 
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Unfortunately the Henckels marked hone was not included, and an older Russell Green River hone took it's place.
c001.jpg

Not happy with that (although it's an interesting design.) I've already been in contact with the seller. She replied quickly with 'Oh dear, my mistake. I'm in the process of moving and ...' so we'll see what happens there.
The 102-12, the biggest part of this package has had some rough thinning and heel reduction done it. Looks to be a period alteration so I'll probably keep it as-is. But I wonder how hot the steel got while it was being ground away. :(
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The skinning knife, the 55-5 1/2 has a bit of the tip broken off.
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Certainly not the end of the world there.
The 100-9 has got quite the heavy swale/recurve to it; more than I expected. Sometimes seller's images can be deceiving; in this case they weren't.
e001.jpg

Dunno what I'll do with old boy... maybe a slicer?
And then the 48-9 cimiter has got some moderate handle issues. The scales are still nice and tight but I think they've been tightened at some point. Regardless, some fairly serious cracks here...
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So all in all this wasn't the most amazing auction find of the decade.
If I can get my camera to play ball I'll try to show the bends in the slicers, and we'll talk about that in the future...
But of the six knives bought every one has it's own, smallish issues.
And then there's the fact that the honing rod got switched out. That bugs me.
I want that hone. I paid for it. I expect it. I certainly included it when I made my max bid.
 
I can feel your pain. I bought a lot on the bay a while back that I paid way more than I should have. Photos were horrible on listing, seller used a bench grinder on all the blades, every handle was split on opposite side of what was shown in photos. I was so disgusted I threw them all back in the box and they sat in my basement for months. Took a couple out to do what I could.

This Henckels is one. Pretty sure it used to be a 102-12, but its now a 11.5" Picture sucks but you can still make out the heavy grinds.
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Logan09 said:
I can feel your pain. I bought a lot on the bay a while back that I paid way more than I should have. Photos were horrible on listing, seller used a bench grinder on all the blades, every handle was split on opposite side of what was shown in photos. I was so disgusted I threw them all back in the box and they sat in my basement for months. Took a couple out to do what I could.

This Henckels is one. Pretty sure it used to be a 102-12, but its now a 11.5" Picture sucks but you can still make out the heavy grinds. View attachment 196724
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Gorgeous piece of wood for the handle. Spalted maple?
 
Ericfg said:
Eugen Henkels manufacturer???? Never heard of that maker. You did a great job on that resto!
edit: Google returns nada on"Eugen Henkels". Weird.
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Ha! I never even realized that! I'm now confused and looking up the same thing with no luck.
 
A bit of an update: The seller's got the correct, J.A.H., honing rod in the mail.

I also doodled a little with profiles for the swaled 100-9. It's still got almost 1.75 inches (~43mm) at the heel so I could do a shortened chef's profile at about 7 inches removing the front 2 inches. Or I can do full length(9") slicer removing a lot of the bottom of the blade and probably ruining some blade geometry. I have no use for the latter profile.
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And except for the one above I've got all the handles cleaned and soaked overnight in mineral oil.
edit: I don't believe I showed the end of the handle of this one:
c003.jpg
 
I would keep the length and move the heel up, but wouldn't go as far down the length as the sketch looks. Just enough to take the recurve out. Looks like you might only have to go as far as a little behind the twins. something like this. Would make a nice "line knife", like a 220 petty.
C643F180-5E89-44D7-BDF0-CFF995B6F99E.jpeg
 
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