I just discovered another reference:
According to "Gerhard Seifert: Fachwörterbuch der Blankwaffenkunde" the origin of the term could be (obviously he himself has no proof) the "Nagelprobe" (nail test) where the blade must be able to cut through an iron nail without getting damaged. The term "Eisenhauer" would then be applied to blades that pass this test.
Later on this evolved to a description of a special grind: the Eisenhauerschliff, which is basically a kind of convex grind.
According to this source trademark Eisenhauer would be just a word describing the grind of the blade.
He also gives references to the use in other languages:
Yzerhouwer (dutch), jernhugger (danish), coup de fer (french)
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