Kriegsmarine dagger yellow grip

[frank]

I'd like to receive your comments on my latest purchase:
It's a beautiful kriegsmarine dagger with its attache and portpee but with yellow grip and blank blade.

Initially I had a week colture on those blades and purchase it but than I found that those are mainly with scrabbed blade and white grip.

My doubt it's not about its originality as it comes from Detlev but I'm trying to understand if than has a good value, being atypical or I better give it back and look for a standard one.

Cheers

[Skipper Greenwade]

Frank,

These daggers are an anomaly as the Kriegsmarine is the only branch of the Wehrmacht where the engraved blade is more common than the plain variety. T

The grip color is not that rare, but the plain blade is pretty scarce. Having said that, I should point out that the plain blade variety generally do not sell for as much as the engraved ones, even though they are much scarcer. Most Navy dagger "type" collectors have one in their collection to round out all the variations, but the collector who will only own one or two will almost always opt for the engraved blade pieces because they are much more attractive.

Nice dagger!
Skip

[frank]

My dagger

Thanks for your kind reply which basically means to me: keep this as it's beautiful and buy also the engraved blade dagger.

This is a great answer to me......a bit upset will be instead my wife! .............You know!

Cheers

[Skipper Greenwade]

Frank,

That would be my advice, as the two daggers would make a nice, representative Navy display.

(Just be sure you keep a nice picture of your wife in your hobby room!)

Best,
Skip

[Colorado]

Also of not is the mark on the blade is not a maker mark. It is a distributor mark. That is more commonly seen on bayonets not daggers. The portepee is not in the traditional Naval reef tie as well. There is a good chance that is an Army portepee added later.

[frank]

Detlev

Skipper,

following the answer of Colorado to this treat and Detlev's advice to contact you again as a true expert in this field, I'm going to express you my questions:

There are basically two points:

- According to a Lumsden book, Adolf Braun is not in the list of the Kriegsmarine producers and any mark from Berlin and not Solingen could be a copy or at least a replacement of the original blade

- Adolf Braun is not an official producer of Kriegsmarine but just a distributor mark more commonly seen on bayonets not daggers.

- What about the portpee? Is the correct one?

What do you think? Is the dagger correctly assembled?

Cheers

[Billy G]

Frank,

You are correct, Braun was not a maker but a distributor. I think this makes the dagger a bit more rare, as does the plain blade. The piece appears to be in good condition and since it's from Detlev, I'm sure everything is legitimate, except the portepee, but that is an easy matter to rectify. I believe most Kriegsmarine daggers have a white/cream color grip so this one is a little more unusual. I agree with Skip that non white grips are by no means rare, but they are nicer to look at. I would consider keeping the piece.

[Skipper Greenwade]

Well said Billy,

There is a diagram of how to tie a 45 cm portepee into the correct 'reef knot' in one of Johnson's books. I've done it, but it's no easy feat...a good way to waste, er, spend, a saturday afternoon!

Adolf Braun is a well known distributor - I have no problem with the mark on the blade.

One of my favorite daggers is a Navy by WKC with the hammered scabbard, sailing ship blade and a deep orange grip!

My advice? Keep - and enjoy - the dagger!

Best,
Skip

[frank]

Thanks for your kind reply.
Let me just add that I was unclear with the observation received about the 'reef knot' .
I have than rewieved the picture posted and noticed why: both pictures are reproducing the same side of the dagger.
Double checking the front side of the dagger (not shown in this picture) with reference books and other pictures I have instead noticed that even the 'reef knot' is correct.

Ciao

[Billy G]

I only have one KM dagger, relatively common in many regards and then again, not so much. It has a perfect, double fullered, etched blade, has an off white grip and lightening bolt scabbard. What's so special? It's an early Puma maker mark (no diamond) which isn't so common and has near 100% of it's original gilting. Oh and it was from Tom Wittmann. Not the most rare, but near and dear to me. Skip does have the right combination though for another KM if ever I am to get one, orange grip and hammered scabbard.

[Larry Lipps]

Frank, as far as your portepee goes, the Army and Kriegs protepees were different lengths to allow for tying of the "Reef Knot". If your dagger has a reef knot, then it's a Kriegs portepee since the Army knots aren't long enough to tie correctly. I've enclosed a photo of the knot on an ivory gripped example. These may look easy to tie, but the only one I ever attempted, after a thousand tries, never really looked quite right.

[Colorado]

Thanks for posting the pictures to show a reef tie. The other knot is definately a Heer tie and length. Not a show stopper though as many knots fell apart from sea duty.

I only pointed out the distributor mark for reference, not to imply it was not a good blade.

[Larry Lipps]

Colorado, you might be correct about the knot, but since both the photos Frank posted are of the reverse of his dagger it's difficult to be sure. From the reverse, the tie of my reef knot is identical to the photos posted by Frank. I gurss we'll have to wait until he gives us a photo of the obverse.

[Colorado]

Hi:

The tie is different and you can see even from the back. Look how the tie comes in and out around the crossguard diagonally on a KM? On the Heer tie it is only wrapped once.

[Larry Lipps]

Colorado, maybe I'm dumb as a stump and overlooking the obvious, but I don't see the difference when comparing a reverse view of my dagger to the one posted by Frank. How are you making the determination that this is an army portepee?