SCHROH

[ausjulius]

Originally Posted by Interested Party

Sorry I didn't mean to make the room go quiet It is just a knife I got cheap for a work knife and then saw the distal taper on the tang and the odd wear pattern on the handle. That aroused my curiosity. It made me wonder if it had possibly been part of a hunting sword set. Probably not, from what I can tell those are usually guardless. So, I thought I would ask the group what they thought concerning this knife and its maker. Here is a question someone might know off hand; when did production knives lose the distal taper in the tang?

its a german or austrian made nicker styles trenchy knife.. probably ww1.
its nicely made,
the forging is very detials in the guard.
the grip is not a mistake sometimes ive seen these wityh one stamped hollow steel scale on the underside that sits against your body and a stag scale on the other side or ine side horna nd the other side stan or other such things . probabyl jsut a fashio0n.. fancy side out.

when tdid knives lowse tapered tangs..
well you can still get some french kitchyen knvies with tapered tangs. but its very rare now.. it once was standard. its a mark of quality and improves balance and heft greatly.
why we dont do it any more.. because were are post industrial age morons.. and dont know about such thigns as balance anymore.
when did it decline.. in nroth american long ago 19th century as hand working of knvies by skilled workers was in short supply in america.. in englanld a little later except on kitchen knvies that ended post ww2.. dies take a wile or wear out.. germany post ww2 began declining rapidly.. and french was the last to stickl to in the 80s or 90s many french kitchen knvies still had tapered tangs on them.
its much harder to fit the scales thats why epople dont do it.. also the tang has to be forged or milled to the taper.
infact in the 19th century some pocket knives even had tapered backsprings.. starting off very wide and becomming narrow towards the butt of the pocket knife.
it gives a different feel. and it loks fantastic.