The Pizza Therapy Forum and Pasta Therapy Forum

[pizza]

Sean writes:

I have what I believe to be a piece of pizza history.
Maybe you can help me or point me in the direction
of someone who can.

I work as a chef and was in a pawn shop about 7 years ago
and saw what I thought was a plastic wall display until
I asked the store owner to show me the big knife
on the wall. He handed it to me and said I don't know
what anybody would want this thing for I've had it
for a coupe of years.

I read the knife and saw the Wusthof marking on it
and another stamp I've never seen on a
Wusthof Knife- JS Jacmar. It described the knife as
being 16 inches long. It has wooden handles.

The owner of the shop told me all the he knew about
it was that it had come from Shakey's Pizza in
Milwaukee, Oregon when it closed.
The pawn shop was only
about 5 miles away from the old shakey's
so it was believable.

Since then I have been on a quest to find some history
on this knife. I found a knife repair shop( by chance while
googling an image of the knife) in Oregon
who displayed a picture of another knife like this.

It claimed the knife was 1 of 100 manufactured for a
pizza manufacturer. The stamp JS Jacmar
refers to a California based restaurant company who
manages pizza restaurants- Shakey's
being one of them. So, I believe the pawn shop.

Wusthof, who manufactured the knife has no record
of ever having made a knife this large, but has said that
due to the wooden handles it has to be atleast 40 years old.
That puts the manufacture date somewhere between 1954
(When Shakey's opened) to 1967
(When Wusthof quit using wooden handles).

I recently found a few excerpts from a blog where a guy
recalled pizza being cut with a big knife at Shakey's. I'm
curious-why did they only produce 100? Was it
commemorative of something or something started
when the chain started and then discontinued????

I'm hoping to find anybodys recollections or stories etc.
of these knives and Shakey's. It's a cool piece of history
and I would love to know more about it. Until, later I think
I'll have a piece of pizza. Thanks for any help you can provide."

So if anyone has any idea about the history of this knife,
please post your answer...
_________________
"Pizza on Earth...Good Will to All!"
Visit: http://pizzatherapy.com
http://pizzatherapy.blogspot.com/
http://legendsofpizza.com/blog

[pizza]

Sean share more about the knife...

I did find a little more info on the Knife. JS Jacmar
( the other logo stamped on the knife) opened its first
Shakey's Pizza Parlour franchise in 1964.

So, that has to put the date of manufacture
sometime between 1964(when JS Jacmar
opened their first franchise) and 1967
(when Wusthof quit making wooden handled knives).

Recently, Jacmar bought out Shakey's
and now owns the franchise rights in America and are
currently trying to revitalize the company.
Thanks for posting my story on your site.

I hope someone can answer some of my questions about this cool piece of pizza history.

[dfandreatta]

It appears that you have a bit of pizza memorabilia that is of little note nor long remembrance. Hang on to that, though. I remember Shakey's in the heyday - it was a beautiful thing.
_________________
"Papa Don"
Apollo Beach, Florida

[pizza]

Sean shares the following dispatch regarding the Pizza Knife Mystery...

"Hi Sean,

Here’s the information I received from our factory in Solingen. Good luck with the rest of you research.

Regards,
Claudia Francis

Hello Claudia

I got the following information from Wolfgang Wüsthof:

"The extra heavy cook´s knife 4586/42 was specially made for J.S. JACMAR to be used in their SHAKEY´S Pizza Parlors. Their orders were placed through our former West Coast distributer, The Trident Trading Company in San Francisco.

JACMAR bought 150 pieces about once every two years over a period of approx. 10 years. The total number of pieces manufactured was less then 1000.

In our standard program we have kept the heavy cook´s knife 4586/36. It is still being manufactured.

The knife in your possession was hand-forged by use of a quaint tapering machine. This unique tapering machine is now one of the show pieces of the Industrial Museum here in Solingen. The handles of your knife were made of ebonized wood.

It might be interesting to know that the 16´´ blade was simply too large to be hot drop-forged in dies. Consequently, the art of free hand-forging had to be readopted in this particular case."

Best regards

Martin"