Background
In 1973, I published a little book entitled The Sword and Bayonet Makers of Imperial Germany. This listed 160 makers and merchants of German edged weapons, and, being the first of its kind, was acclaimed internationally.
I continued work on the project for some time, aided and abetted by friends and correspondents, until what had once stopped at 1918 was extended until the end of the Second World War in 1945. However, as my personal interests lay as much in razors, pocket knives and bladed tools as edged weapons, the project grew too large to be exploited. As I was involved in too many other things, I finally offered the project to my friend Anthony Carter, with whom I'd published a book on Ersatz bayonets, in the hope that he would finish it.
The razor-makers and the toolmakers were discarded, and Anthony began the decade of painstaking research that culminated in the publication in the Spring of 2002 of The Sword and Knife Makers of Germany 1850-2000, Volume I, which listed cutlers from 'A' to 'L'.
The new book
Tragically, only a few months after his book had appeared, Anthony Carter died from complications following a minor operation. He had made considerable progress with the 'M' to 'Z' portion of The Sword and Knife Makers of Germany, but the manuscript was still some way from completion.
Christian Cranmer, the owner of International Military Antiques, Inc., and a close friend of Anthony Carter, generously provided the funding necessary to complete the project. The work was undertaken by Henning Ritter and me…and took another decade to complete. This was partly due to a decision to update the original 'A' to 'L' portion, which was out-of-date, and add a tremendous amount of detail concerning the trademarks and brand names. A fifty-page index was created, and the book finally 'went to press' in September 2015 and is still available in limited quantities.
Contents:
A detailed history of the German cutlery industry.
An English–German glossary of terms used by German cutlers.
Histories of more than 1400 firms in alphabetical order.
Identification of more than 4500 brand names and trademarks.
Imperial and royal cyphers used on edged weapons.
Reichzeugmeisterei (RZM) marks.
Arabic markings used by German cutlers on goods sent to Turkey.
A fifty-page index of names.
Illustrations of 2400 trademarks; 250 historical advertisements; sixty reproductions from sales catalogues;
and eighty historical photos, letterheads, patent claims and patent drawings
'Wipe-clean' hardback binding, 656 pages, 25 x 19 cm, 1.6 kg.
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