Identifying Round Shield Henckels Pocketknives

[dsutton24]

JA Henckels pocketknives have been contract-made since 1975, and the most common are what I think of as the round shield variety.

For a company that sold a lot of knives iniormation can be hard to come by. There was an auction recently that offered over twenty of these knives, all mint with boxes. Sort of. The knives had been separated from their boxes at some point, and the seller didn't match the boxes to the knives. Yeah, I know, buy the knife, not the box, but the knives were listed by model number, and all but two were wrong.

So what? The problem, at least for me, was that a lot of the scales used in these knives had subtle differences that aren't always apparent from bad photos.

The knives in question were made by Boker for Henckels from 1991 through 2007. They're almost indistinguishable from the Bokers of that era, the only differences are the tang stamps and shields. They are invariably nicely made, sturdy knives with very good fit and finish. The blade pulls are on par with most 20th century knives, That is, don't expect bear trap backsprings. They have 9mm round shields, either red or black, with the Henckels Twin logo. The blades are mirror polished, and have nice, consistent bevels.

The knife shown above is a HK-3-B, and is very common. It's a typical 4" Stockman with Blutrot (Blood Red) jigged bone scales. HK-3 describes the knife pattern, a 4" Stockman, -B designates the scale material and color.

Some of the common patterns:

HK-1​	4 Blade Congress, Small, Smooth Bolsters​
HK-2​	3 Blade Stockman – 3 5/16” (Rare, Only Stag and B scales noted)​
HK-3​	3 Blade Stockman – 4”​
HK-4​	2 Blade Copperhead​
HK-5​	2 Blade Trapper – 4 1/8” Black Shield​
HK-6​	3 Blade Gentleman's Stockman – 2 3/4”​
HK-7​	3 Blade Whittler​
HK-8​	2 Blade Half Congress​
HK-9​	2 Blade Pen 2 3/4”​
HK-10​	1 Blade Small Stainless Lockback​
HK-11​	2 Blade Stainless Pen Knife - 2 3/4”​
HK-12​	2 Blade Canoe​
HK-14​	1 Blade Barlow​
HK-15​	Folding Hunter – 5”​
HK-16​	2 Blade Barlow​
HK-17​	2 Blade Trapper – 4 1/8” **​
HK-18​	2 Blade Copperhead Etched Blade​
HK-19​	2 Blade Barlow Etched Blade​
HK-20​	Fixed Blade​
HK-21​	4 Blade Congress – Stepped Bolsters​
HK-22​	2 Blade Half Congress​
HK-23​	Swing Guard Lockback​
HK-24​	6 Blade Congress – Stepped Bolsters​
HK-25​	4 Blade Stockman​
HK-26​	3 Blade Barlow​
HK-27​	5 Blade Canoe​
HK-28​	4 Blade Slim Congress​
HK-29​	3 Blade Trapper - 4 1/8”​
HK-0120​	1 Blade Folding Hunter​
HK-135​	Large Lockback Folding Hunter​
HK-240​	Half Whittler​

You'll see zeros in the part numbers occasionally, e.g. HK-005-B. The added zeros seem to happen in the later knives. You'll also see model numbers stamped on the reverse of the master blade, but this is rare.

There is some duplication in the pattern numbers. It seems that sometimes one pattern number will denote a basic knife, but the same knife with etched an etched master blade might get a different part number.

Stockmans, Copperheads, Trappers, Whittlers and Half Whittlers are common. The Small Stockman and Half Congress are rare.

 

[dsutton24]

Now for the scales. It gets a little more difficult. Here are the basics:

AULF​ Red Autumn Leaf (Med. Red, Red Edges)​ B​ Blood Red Bone (Blutrot, Very Dark)​ BFH​ Buffalo Horn (white, smooth)​ BP​ Blue Pick Bone​ BWP​ Burnt White Pick Bone​ CHFL​ Chipped Flint White Bone​ FER​ Fernambuk (Wood)​ FLIV​ Fossil Ivory (Brown Flats, Tan Edges)*​ FOI​ Fossil Ivory*​ GB​ Green Pick Bone* (Medium to Dark Green)​ GP​ Green Pick Bone* (Medium to Dark Green)​ GSW​ Gun Stock Walnut​ HLBN​ Hellbraun Pick Bone (light brown)​ HMA​ Mahogany (?)​ MHG​ Mahogany Bone​ MOP​ Mother of Pearl​ MTM​ Mountain Moss Pick Bone (Light to Medium Green)​ RP​ Red Pick Bone (Lighter Red than R)​ T​ Artificial Tortoise Acrylic​ WSB​ White Smooth Bone​ YP​ Yellow Pick Bone​ RW​ Rosewood​ S​ Stag*​ Stag Stag* *Appear to be used interchangeably.

The most common color is 'B' - Blood Red. This is very dark, in many cases almost black. Whoever dyed scales for these knives didn't fool around, most of the solid color scales are very saturated color wise. I only have one Henckels knife with black scales. I've never found a reference to black scales on these knives, and I suspect these scales are actually overachieving Blood Red. The browns and greens are hard to tell apart. The Stag scales are stag, not bone stag.

Another fairly common scale is the 'FLIV', Fossil Ivory. It's neither, it's jigged bone that's basically tan with brown dye in the jigging. It's actually (to my eyes) an attractive color.

As I mentioned earlier, the colors of many of the scales are very saturated. The trick is to look at the scale edges, either on the well side or backspring side. Most of the time the color isn't as uniform on the edges. For example MTM and GP are both greens, but MTM is a little lighter. You'll see that the edges of an MTM scaled knife are more mottled, and lighter colored.

My apologies, my photography skills aren't such that I could illustrate this clearly.

Certain scales are used across many patterns. The B, GP, and FLIV scales are common on most patterns. CHFL only seems to turn up on the large folder. I don't have a definitive list of what colors are available on which pattern.

A final factor, is it stainless, or is it carbon steel? The prevailing wisdom is that a red shield identifies the knife as having carbon steel blades, and a black shield means stainless blades. In my experience this isn't 100% reliable, maybe something like 85%. You'll find Stockmans with either carbon steel or stainless blades, but it seems that it's rare to find a stainless Green Pickbone, it seems that certain colors of each pattern were either stainless or carbon steel, although I've never been able to discern a pattern to this seeming rule.

You'll see these knives frequently with missing shields. For what it's worth it's impossible to find replacement shields without scavenging them from other intact knives. The Bokers of this era also lose their shields.

I'm sure there are some errors contained above. I've been collecting these knives since the 90s. Anyone who remembers those days knows that obsessive-level detail was hard to come by. Some makers, such as Case were well documented, most others, however, were not. This is my work, and since I can't blame an Editor all errors are my doing.

Now, go out and buy a knife.

 

[Old Engineer]

Thank you for all your information .
Your posting has made me get up out of my easy chair to go get and look at my 2 J.A. HENCKELS knives just to see what is on the blades . Neither one has the round shield so I hope that I am not being out of line with your posting . Both have Stag covers and both were bought as previously owned .
Since neither have Round Shields , based on your info , I assume that the small one was not made by Boker ? I consider both of them to be well made and I am proud to have both of them .

The small one is 3 bladed : Clip , Coping , and Pen with the Twins and J.A. HENCKELS over Germany on the Tang of each blade and the Shield has No Pins going through the Brass Liner
The Barlow : Clip blade with the Twins and J.A. HENCKELS over Germany on one side of the Tang and HK-14-S over Hand Forged over Stainless on the other side . Etching on the Blade has the Red Twins and ZWILLING J.A. HENCKELS over Solingen Germany over Hand-Honed
Pins and Liners are Brass
I assume that the Barlow was most likely made by Boker based on your info.
Again I apologize if my posting is out of line with your intent my friend .

Harry

 

[dsutton24]

I assume that the Barlow was most likely made by Boker based on you info.

Yes, the Barlow is one of the knives made by Boker for Henckels during this timeframe, it's an HK-14-S. The other knife was undoubtedly also made by Boker, they often had the model numbers stamped on the reverse side of the master blade tang. The Boker made knives made prior to '91 had various shields, the Federal like your knife has shield is common.

Several of the patterns made during what I'm calling the round shield era didn't have shields such as the Barlows, the HK-11 pen knife, and of course the fixed blades. I don't know that round shield knives is a common way to describe them it's just my shorthand.