My first KM Dagger; opinions please.

[Harvey A]

Hello again to this forum,

I recently purchased this KM Dagger and the blade looked pretty bad. I was resolved to live with the condition to get a good price. When I got the piece, however, it looked like a lot of the discoloration was dirt, although there was still some light pitting and even mill-scale. Anyway, I gently cleaned the blade and worked a little on the rusty spots and I think it turned out nice.

Please let me know what you think of the blade work and the dagger itself. Is Weyersburg a common maker of these? What is the significance of the tang mark? Does the tapered tang make a KM early like it does Armies and LWs? Also, when I took it apart I found that each separate component is marked '125', even the grip.

Thanks so much for your help, and thanks to the seller.

Harvey

[Harvey A]

Obverse Hilt

[Harvey A]

Reverse Hilt

[Harvey A]

Maker's Mark

[Harvey A]

Tang mark

[Harvey A]

Obverse Blade

[Harvey A]

Reverse Blade

[Harvey A]

etching

[Harvey A]

etching 2

[Harvey A]

etching 3

[Skipper Greenwade]

Nice job cleannig the blade...as you no doubt learned, there is a real trick to cleaning an etched blade.

The dagger look fine. You will probably encounter more Eickhorn and WKC Navy daggers than you will Weyersberg, but I would stop short of calling them (Weyersberg daggers) scarce or rare.

The numbering of the individual components is a good thing, just proof positive that the dagger hasn't been monkeyed with over the years I think you will find a lot of Navy daggers have the tapered tang and many exhibit considerable grinding to the tang for a good fit to the grip. The grip is somewhat smaller than say, an Army, Luft or Party-form dagger, with a smaller hole for the tang. Add to that the fact that the tang had to be fitted with the leaf spring for the balde release and you see that considerable work was required to make everything fit! The tang marking - which appears to be an "H" with a "C" above and an "A" beloew the center line - appears on a ot of blades - not just Navy and not just Weyersberg daggers. It's likely that Weyersberg bought the blade forgings from a third party and etched them with their trademark.

Let's see what the rest of the gang says, but that's my take.

Skip

[Harvey A]

Thanks Skip,

The dagger looks better first-hand than the photos show. Most of the gilting is still on the brass hilt and scabbard. To prevent hurting the etching I used just crocus (sp?) cloth, and the grime came off easily. The only pitting was at the ricasso, and it turned out to be relatively minor.

It needs a portapee; did the KM daggers use a special type?

Harvey

[JR.]

The proper Navies usually have a little longer cord. When you attempt that reef knot you'll know why.