Henckels switchblades

[bjh]

Anyone know the history of Henckels switchblade, the lever type made like the Case and KA BAR ? Mine is stamped 119 on the back of the tang, stag handles and 41/2" long with clip blade. Would like to know when it was made.

[1967redrider]

Maybe these will help.

[wiseguy]

Those are nice old knives ! mine is stamped with a 2 or 4 on the lever, i cant remember, also has "GERMANY" on the pile side. So from what i gathered the brass lined model pre dates the other nickel lined model but past that ive never found concrete answers on the dates these were made. If you find any info post it here.

[Madmarco]

Maybe these will help.

Great info John, thanks for that!

[Madmarco]

Those are nice old knives ! mine is stamped with a 2 or 4 on the lever, i cant remember, also has "GERMANY" on the pile side. So from what i gathered the brass lined model pre dates the other nickel lined model but past that ive never found concrete answers on the dates these were made. If you find any info post it here.

Nice ole' switch W.G.!

[kootenay joe]

I have owned a few old Henckels folding knives but never found the dating chart to be of any help. Most of the Twins stamps look the same.
The knife shown above is a 'real' Henckels, i.e. pre 1960 and made by Henckels. The stag is typical Henckels stag.
Would need to see a picture of knife O.P. is asking about to know if Henckels made or if a post 1960 contract knife, made by Boker or if quite recent maybe made in China.
kj

[lt632ret]

The question of where these Case levers were made has always been a matter of contension. I feel that the ones case put out were made by Henkel under contract. I would welcome any facts which mght clarity the question. My reasons for my opinion are based alot upon examination of these actual articles. It is known that Case did contract at least some of its automatics from other companies. To prove this I am including some pictures of two schrade cut co knives and the same models with the Case tang. * a business and an invicible. Now that being said I have also included pics of 3 lever knives. A Henkels, a KA Bar and a Case. These were the first examples I took from there displays You will notice the lever is different on the KA Bar ignor that these were also made with the heart lever I just grabbed the wrong one. However if you compare the handles on all three the Case and Henkels are only a bit different while the KA Bar is significantly wider and a somewhat different shape. I am not stateing my conclusions as fact only opinion. Dates can overlap on all three and tang stamps may vary. (NOTE pics one and two top Ka Bar, middle Case, bottom Henkels. LT ( I should have put may have been made by Henkels not were made ).

[1967redrider]

That's a sweet group, LT. Thanks for posting.

[Bill DeShivs]

While Case contracted all of their later switchblades from George Schrade Knife Co., the early lever locks were indeed made by Case, not Henckels.
KaBar made their own, too. There is no commonality of parts between any of them.
There are similarities between them, but the differences are too great for any of them to be made by Henckels, except the Henckels models.

[outkast]

Just sharing pics of mine. Nothing to write home about but price was right bought it with a broken back spring for under $70 and had Mickey Burrell fix it up for me. It does have a light gouge mark on the Twins but I'm good with it. Mine is marked 21 on back of lever and back side tang is stamped 119.

[doglegg]

Wonderful old knife.