New EK2 Fritz Zimmermann

[Robert P.]

The 6 seems to have a period in front of it. Is this so you'll know it's a six and not a 9?

Exactly.

Robert

[George Stimson]

"The 6 seems to have a period in front of it. Is this so you'll know it's a six and not a 9?"

But not everybody notices that. In fact, the reason I have two of these is because the dealer who sold me the second one was advertising it as a "9".

[Douglas 5]

Thats correct Steve :
The (6.)has a dot after it ... and so has (66.)... a dot after it .
The odd thing is that 86 and 98 do not have the dot after the number and as to 66 that has the dot , ... 99 is not in the list to have made EK2's . One wonders if they possibly tried to get a number but were not approved ????
Some inaccurateness amongst the accurateness !
Douglas

[Robert P.]

There you are Douglas!

What think ye of the deteriorating core die in Danny's and George's (2nd) crosses?

Robert

[Danny70]

From the looks of the core and the frame, this must have been sometime near to the time the company sold their dies to another company who, in theory, reworked the dies for use in producing more crosses. The crosses I have seen with the reworked frames have no maker mark on the rings, explaining perhaps that another company other than Zimmermann bought and reworked the old dies. Douglas5 would love to see this worn example. He did some very interesting study with the newer frames and proved they were indeed the old F. Zimmermann's. The swastika, you can see the evidence of the die breakdown with the rounded inside corners where the arm(s) meets the inside, or middle. This is a very interesting piece, and I would love to own it!
Robert

Thanks Robert,
I believe I also have an example of the re-worked crosses. I purchased this one believing it to be an unmarked Zimmermann, and got a bit of a scare when I saw your old thread on these! Still, I had always liked it and I'm glad I held onto it.
Below is a picture of both crosses side by side. The core is very loose in the unmarked, re-worked cross and when shaken at a certain angle, the core moves so far to one side that a gap can be seen between the frame and the edge of the core. This is the first EK2 that I have seen this happen with.
Regards - Danny

[Robert P.]

Yes, Danny, that is a reworked frame. And, a beautiful cross. Yours really has the vintage patina on it, something I really like! A very nice example, Danny!!!

Robert

[Dave-B]

Sorry to resurrect this old thread but a search for Fritz Zimmermann found me this
These two EKIIs came to me the other day and at first I took both to be Fritz Zimmermanns (both are unmarked) until I noticed they were slightly different, I believe I have an original F.Zimmermann on the left and a reworked Cross on the right.

Opinions welcome

[Dave-B]

rev

[Steinar]

what about this?

[Douglas 5]

At first glance I would rather say there are for sure 2 seperate core dies and the frame .... is it re-worked ? Only if the lower arm bead flaws match in a progressive manner ,...
Dave ... do you have both 6 O'clock arm closeups ?? Vintage wise your left would have been made first - going by the high grade Ag plating and the coarse creamy core paint . But for one frame die the flaws shoud be less ... which they are not , ... lending the possibilty of either a 2 frame die or a re-worked first die .
Steiner has even less flower flaws on his yet .

Douglas

[Douglas 5]

Having a look at Dave's left cross and Steiner's :
I have identified the core to a 2nd S&L die core . Dave's core has less wear than Steiner's . S&L 2nd core has a very destinct perminant feature .
The openings- the inside bottoms- in the 9s are different ! The right 9 has a slightly wider flat bottom and the tail balls on the 9s are not as round as the ball on the 3 ! An 'over time' developing feature is the die chip in the top of the 3 in the front date , only the S&L 2nd core die shows this flaw ! This flaw is located specificly on the bottom line of the top horizontal part of the 3 .
If Steiner could confirm this please , .....below picture of area of interest .

Douglas

[Steinar]

hang on , ill post a closeup of 1939

[Steinar]

here is the year 1939


by the way, this cross is CLEANED

not by me of course

[Steinar]

1813

[Steinar]

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