Portepee question

[geopop71]

Has any one ever disected one of those portepee's? I am curiose as to what makes the knot so solid. I imagined a piece of turned wood wrapped in aluminum thread. My old one has been on a Heer dagger for some time and the threads are some what flattened and battered from the banging against the dagger handle. Also it seem's that there are a lot of new unissued portys out there, and not very expensive, why would they be faked? I just picked one up at the gun show Sat. and it is a perfect match to the old one in every detail for $65.00, they seem very complicated to mfg. Lots of detailed work. Faking them seems to be a lost cause for so much work. Unless they were very expensive. I am tempted to take my old one apart, it is allmost broken through in several places. geopop

[Larry Lipps]

Some portepees are plentiful and are not overly faked. Some however are very rare and can cost almost as much as the dagger itself. These are the ones to really be concerned about when you're laying out the cash.

[SCHUPO]

geopop,

Typically, a dagger Portepee has a wooden form with the material that forms the Stengel and the Quaste wrapped around it. Typically, a flattened sword portepee has a hollow cardboard form where the wooden form is on the dagger Portepee. The same with the Troddel but the Faustriemen has (typically) always a cardboard form for the Quaste. If you have a copy of my book, "Seitengewehr; History of the German Bayonet" you will find photos of these disassembled knots that explain how they are manufactured. No need to take yours apart.

I hope this helps.

George Wheeler

[SwordFish]

George,
I didn't know you wrote that book. Awesome!!

[SCHUPO]

Thanks for the kudos Tom.

I became interested in what was inside these knots just like geopop. So, I took some damaged ones apart to photograph them. I was also able to pick up a group of semi-finished Troddeln that I found in Germany. These turned out to be great for parts as well as figuring out the order in which the various parts were manufactured and assembled.

I guess I have sort of an obsession over accouterments as I have several hundred knots of all types.

George

[geopop71]

Portepee

OK,Thanks for the reply, just as I imagined, wood on the inside. It seemed kinda hard. I am amazed that there are so many of them in unissued condition
after all these years. The one that was on the Army dagger was a mess!
Most likely not original since the dagger was pristeen!
Thanks again geopop