Yes, they are still being made, fortunately.
A forum friend in a German knife forum was kind enough to select and buy it for me according to my request. He lives just 20 km away from Solingen and offered to do that for several forum members.
I chose amboina or snakewood handles and he preferred the snakewood over amboina, fine by me. The blade is handforged by a Solingen company, it's made of high-carbon steel, it's not stainless, and has a double distal taper. A different Solingen company then mates blade to handle, grinds, polishes and assembles blade and handle. The guys doing that have approx. 50 years experience each and believe me, it shows.
It is a truly wonderful little slip-joint pocket knife, comparable to a Delica in size, blade is exactly Delica-length, the handle is a little bit shorter than a D4. It's a real hand charmer, as we would say in German, having deburred some sharp edges on the liners with my sharpmaker rods in just a few strokes.
Hippekniep is Solingen slang for little goat knife. Hippe = goat, Kniep = little knife. Apparently similar knives were used to slaughter goats in emergencies long ago. Although German is my native language, I had to ask for a translation myself. :rolleyes:
Enough German lessons, time for pics. :D
The first and best pic is from the guy who selected it, with his permission, the less good-looking others are mine.
Personally, I'm very glad that Solingen know-how and expertise has not become extinct yet. The snakewood is really beautiful, at the right angle to the light it seems to glow from within, it's like you can look right into the wood.
It's something totally different from my usual Spydercos with super steel blades and handles of high-tech materials, such as thermoplastics, carbon fiber or titanium. And I like it immensely, being a slip-joint it's legal carry in Germany.
Here's a link to one of the companies, unfortunately all in German. They have been at it since 1931.
http://www.messergriffe.de/produkte/taschenmesser.htm
