My Hubertus Knife

Hubertus & Roe Buck

Several years ago while attending the IAA Truck Show in Hannover, Germany, I was able to take a couple hours out on a beautiful fall morning to walk around the old downtown area and visit local cutleries and a particularly refined "sportsman" shop that housed one of the best assortments of fine rifles that I ever saw, Waffen Will-Apel.

I generally stayed at the Maritim Hotel, in Friedrischwall Strasse, right in front of the fantastic Neues Rathaus or New Town Hall, and from there every evening I would visit the  ruins of  the Aegidienkirche (Aegidien Church) which was destroyed during one of the eighty eight bombing raids that hit Hannover during WWII. Its charred walls stand as a memorial so we can remember the horrors of war and hope for peace among men.

From there I would visit Marktkirche which impressed me particularly for its description of Nazi-era horrors carved in its huge bronze main doors. An eternal remembrance for an evil that cannot be forgotten for the too great risk of repeating it.

Another two hundred meters or so, at Schmiedestrasse 11 is located Waffen Will-Apel!

Being a foreigner I could not buy any of the fantastic high grade rifles and shotguns, but nothing prevented me to engage in great conversation with the gentleman that either managed or owned the store, which soon evolved to cutlery, and I asked him to show me, within the realms of "affordability" his best knives.

Almost without blinking he brought up the Hubertus Jagdmesser (Hunter Knife) that you see in the photo above. Hubertus has been making knifes in Solingen, the heart and soul of Germany's cutlery industry, since the 1930's, and the name is clearly linked with Saint Hubertus, the saint patron of hunters, and their quality is second to none.

My particular knife has three blades. An eleven centimeter (just over four inches) drop point lock back blade, a very robust bone saw of the same length, which also have a bottle opener at the base, and carefully designed gutting blade which has a heavy blunt end to prevent perforating the intestines. At the back there is a very functional corkscrew. The handles are made of top grade stag antler, the bolsters are German silver and the liners are brass. Polishing, fit and finish are nothing but perfection.

This is a heavy knife, but its balance is so exquisite that once in the hand you would not fill it.

After all these years, I haven't had the heart to take my Hubertus Jagdmesser out yet. It will handle almost any shore, but for some reason I don't yet want to risk to damage the mirror polishing of the blades.

But one day it will see use. Of course it will be a very special hunt with my son or maybe my soon to be born grandson. And that, I hope, will be a great story.