Dale Warther Memorial Expo Knife Show 2013

WRCA (Western Reserve Cutlery Association) held its March 2013 Dover Show in April this year.  Confused?  You’re not alone.  We were scheduled at the Dover National Guard Armory in March, but someone in the Guard liked our date better and we found ourselves sitting on our asses outside and off the calendar.  The best we could do was reschedule on April 6 and 7^th.

Several of our favorite vendors couldn’t reschedule and they were missed.

But still, the show was a lot of fun.  It was nice to spend time yakking with the other vendors and I picked up a really nice knife.  More on that later.  The downside (Yes, most shows have a downside.   It’s more interesting to write about conflict and problems.) was low attendance.  The unofficial count was around 350 attendees over two days.  It is a given in the retail business, no matter if you are buying or selling, you need lots of foot traffic for sales. 

 

Maybe it was the drop dead gorgeous weather.  Maybe it was the change in date.  Maybe the inability to put an advertising sign in the Armory’s front yard was our fatal flaw.  Maybe, well there’s no maybe about it, we’re doing something wrong.  Let’s see what we do next year.

My NEW Knife

I picked up an unused Elishewitz-1 (small) from the German company Eickhorn-Solinger. 

My new Elishwitz-1 pocket knife

The seller told me it was one of those companies that had gone out of business in Germany, but their website indicates they are doing well.

For the size of the knife, it has a nice proportion of blade to handle.

Eickhorn is one of many knife companies that has been making edged steel in the “City of Blades,” as Solinger is known in Germany, for 140 years.  They are best known for their high quality military knifes.  This knife shows the quality.

The almost 3-inch blade is a nice spear point with a well-proportioned swage and partial flat grind.  The steel is cryo-quenched 420 stainless steel that has been softened to HRC 55-56.  Softened is the right term.  Just hardened steel can be so brittle it can’t be worked without breaking.  The blade is laser engraved with first production run 0936 of 2000 and logos.

Closed and showing clip side.  The handle is aircraft aluminum with G-10 inserts.

The handle is G-10 with an aluminum/magnesium anodized alloy insert.  That’s sort of the opposite of what I often see.

The knife locks open with a steel frame lock.  

 

The knife looks unused.   The original grind marks are still on the edge of the blade.

Eickhorn has serrated the edge of the steel frame to increase your grip.  Of course it has a clip so it will stay where I put it. 

I got it with the original plastic box and paperwork.  I found it was still available online and you can get one for 45 euros.

Kind of reminds me of Tupperware!

The company’s logo is a long-eared squirrel with a sword with a sort of a give-me-the-bird-seed-or-your-life kind of look.   

The trademark has been laser etched into the steel.  Not too visible in this photo, you can see where the laser paused or started leaving little periods in the letters.

The company was founded by the Eickhorn family with that name 140 years ago, so I took a chance and translated squirrel into German and got eichhornchen.  I suspect the boys often got tagged with the nickname squirrel. 

Elishewitz logo.  You can see little spots were the laser paused for a microsecond.