[katana]

Originally Posted by mrwizard

just a small remark from my side to stating the obvious:
'babelfish' is hardly a reference for the german language of the 19th century.

I agree, but with limited knowledge of the German language it is extremely useful to me.

Originally Posted by mrwizard

Luckily, two brothers that are more famous for their collection of folk-tales, compiled a dictionary exactly at that time.
There is no "Eisenhauer" in the dictionary but the meaning of the word "Hauer" is explained in detail:
http://www.woerterbuchnetz.de/DWB/wbgui_py?lemma=hauer

There "Hauer" is directly connected with
- miners
- woodcutters
- several tools where just "hammer" would not be appropiate
- any slashing weapon
- the male wild boar
- the fangs of a male wild boar
- someone who strikes
- the act of striking itself

There are words in English, spelt the same but with differing meanings....and, as you have shown, the same occurs in German. Obviously the context of the word etc within a sentence allows the reader to understand the meaning of the word without using a dictionary to check the various possible meanings and then deciding which 'discription' fits the sentence. I used a translation programme which would probably work in a similar manner....I had 'eisen' with 'haue(r)' so, perhaps that is why I did not get, for instance 'iron male boar'. I'll assume that 'iron' matched 'strike' as a better translation.
I am not arguing the merits of Bablefish, but two of your 19th C dictionary meanings involve the word 'strike'.

Originally Posted by mrwizard

And in combination with a list of prefix words for several other trades (eg. Steinhauer for stone mason)
Strangely there is no mention of smithing there.

You have already mentioned that 'eisenhauer' was not in the 19th C German dictionary you quoted.....a word that was, it seems, known and used on a number of 19thC German produced blades ?? Perhaps, it was not a 'concise' version.
However, I made a possible assumption that 'eisenhauer' was a reference to blade/black smith (in fact one of your definitions was 'any slashing weapon') so, possibly,even slashing weapon maker.
If 'hauer' is a craftsman or trade and then prefixed with 'iron' this is not an unreasonable assumption.(so perhaps Babelfish is not as bad as you stated)

Originally Posted by mrwizard

Does all this help us in explaining why there is the word "Eisenhauer" on some of the blades? No, it doesn't! .

To make such a bold statement you must, in fact, know why 'eisenhauer' is on some blades. I was just suggesting that the mark may not be a sign of the quality of the steel but, an indication of the skill of it's manufacture. It may help....it may not....it is just an suggestion.

Originally Posted by mrwizard

I don't think that there is a linguistic answer to that question. IMHO as long as we don't discover any
contempory text explaining the reason behind putting "Eisenhauer" on the blades we may as well
continue discussing the incription of "+VLFBERH+T" on some 9th century blades... .

You could well be right, but waiting and hoping the answers will suddenly 'materialise' is not 'my way' . Trying to find answers to questions often further knowledge and understanding. Wrong ideas or theories may lead to 'nowhere' ....but you wouldn't find out if they are incorrect....until proven otherwise. Even respected researchers have modified or even changed their views due to new evidence etc.

Just an afterthought, your 'hauser' definitions included woodcutter ....eisen hauer....iron woodcutter ? .....we call him the 'Tin man'

Come Toto, the games afoot

Regards David

.