Raimey,
Very accuate description of the small amount of history surrounding this fine craftsman. It appears he was admitted into the blacksmith guild in 1862 finishing around 1866. The earliest of his fine work on guns that I have seen appears to be from the 1870s. You are also correct in that it appears as if he bought guns or parts from companies such as Sauer & Merkel & had them finished & retailed from his shop located at Grosse Wall str 8 in Hannover. Even though he seemed to have expanded his business in this way the quality of the firearms sold by his company were of very fine quality. I have seen 50+ of his guns with no 2 being alike. The knife that you speak of was was patent no. 1393684, registered in Berlin 3/12/1936 and was designeded by Painter & Hunter Friedrich Karl Lippert and titled the "Lipper Ceechen Waidblatt". From what I have been able to gather, only around 12 were made & sold by H Scherping. In 2001 this highly prized knife was replicated with a special edition of 200 copies being made by Willi Ulrich in Solingen, a 5th generation sword making family for over 200 years! I have one of these in with my collection of Scherping guns and even though it is a replica it is highly prized! I was enlisted into the "adopt a gunmaker" program by Deitrich Apel of the German Gun Collectors Assn. and continue to search for any new information on this superb craftsman, any info is greatly appreciated & I thought I might tap into the wealth of knowledge on this board for any new information.
thanks
m-4
