### Blade of an Army Dagger --- WKC ###

[Rudel]

Hello,

I have this army dagger. The dagger looks good. Only the blade looks too new for me. The manufacturer is WKC. Can anyone give me some informations about it. Original or new reproduction?

How I can find the differences between Original and reproduction??

Thank you.

Regards

Rudel

http://home.t-online.de/home/mstappen/Klinge_WKC.jpg

[Skipper Greenwade]

Hi Rudel,

I wouldn't wory about the blade...looks fine to me as far os originality. The most common things to look for on reproducion blades are:

Signs of excessive grinding on the tang to make the blade fit

A lack of rust or age on the tang - they should look black ike yours

Original tangs will have evidence of raised lines where the two halves of the die that orged the blade come together and usually some type of mark on the tang, like the intertwined circles on the tang of your blade.

In short, enjoy your dagger. Remember that the steel used for the dagger blades was of very high quality. It is not unusual at all to find them in very nice condition evem some 60 years after they were made

Best,
Skip

[keifer kahn]

I did actually post a reply to this but it dissapeared.
WKC items are fairly safe due to the fact that the actual WKC company is still an existing producer.ANy attempt to use the WKC logo by reproduction manufacturers would result in the enevitable copyright lawsuit.Most repro manufacturers use trademarks from comapnies that dont exist anymore or they change the location name.One example is the swapping of "solingen" for "Berlin".

One thing i have noticed with Late war WKC daggers with plaster filled handles, is that you will find not grind marks on the tang but wire wheel/file marks on the flat of the tangs.This i feel was done to ensure the plaster(once poured in to the handle shell) adhered around the shaft of the tang,instead of expecting the plaster to adhere to the flakey,brittle black shale residue(the black stuff that skipper referes to) that is resultant from the forging process.With plaster being a very brittle medium(especially for a handle material),this cleaning up of the tang would of ensured maxiumum grip for the plaster core.

I have seen this on several late war wkc daggers.All had minimum(if any grinding on the tang).All had obvious billet marks.All had the same black shale on the tangs and all had the same wire wheel/file cleanups.They all seemed to have the same ageing and corrosion.

regards keifer