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I just recieved a portepee/sword knot which I purchased on eBay; I've put it on my ALCOSO NCO/enlisted sabel, where it LOOKS good, BUT... I'm concerned it doesn't really look like either examples on various sale sites; or the one I owned 30+ years ago. I thought it looked like leather from the photograps in its eBay listing; but instead it's a heavy woven fabric, the bluish-gray color seen on most Heer, with triple rows of staggered stiching, once silver/aluminium, but now worn to more a "dirty white" in appearance. ( The bright silver threads still show plainly under the slide, though. ) I searched long and hard to find a similar example, and finally located on Wittmann's site some POLICE knots which were very similar in material, including the apparant weave of the fabric; of which he says, "This police portepee is the style that has the wide cloth strapping." ( I KNOW this one isn't police, since it lacks the red or green color trim. ) Other "irregular" features include the SLIDE ( which DOESN'T - it's stiched in place ) which seems to be made of a silver metallic flat braid-style material, looking to me much like the texture of NCO tresse; a rather fatter-than-normal ball, SLIGHTLY wider at bottom than top; not sure about the fabric insert in the ball bottom - it's also a woven fabric, alternating silver and dark gray, like the colors of the strapping.
Obviously, my questions are: did the Heer have variants of these with fabric strapping in addition to the usual leather? Could its bluish-gray color indicate Luftwaffe? Could it be Wiemar or even Imperial rather than Third Reich? If Third Reich might it be a late variant made when leather was becoming scarce ( a'la the [I]ersatz presstoff[I] used in some items of field gear )? Is it perhaps not even German; this Pennsylvania dealer also had a LOT of Russian items? If this IS a Heer style, is it more appropriate for an officer or NCO? Regardless, I've decided to keep it, because as I said it looks good on my ALCOSO NCO, which is in a little bit nicer condition than my E.Pack & Sohne leopard-head officer's model, which shows the wear to its gilding from having had one of these before.
( I've also posted this inquery on the Axis History Forum in substansially the same wording, C/W pictures; I tried uploading the pictures here, I think unsuccessfully. They CAN be seen there, however. )
ANY information on this will be greatly appreciated!
I just recieved a portepee/sword knot which I purchased on eBay; I've put it on my ALCOSO NCO/enlisted sabel, where it LOOKS good, BUT... I'm concerned it doesn't really look like either examples on various sale sites; or the one I owned 30+ years ago. I thought it looked like leather from the photograps in its eBay listing; but instead it's a heavy woven fabric, the bluish-gray color seen on most Heer, with triple rows of staggered stiching, once silver/aluminium, but now worn to more a "dirty white" in appearance. ( The bright silver threads still show plainly under the slide, though. ) I searched long and hard to find a similar example, and finally located on Wittmann's site some POLICE knots which were very similar in material, including the apparant weave of the fabric; of which he says, "This police portepee is the style that has the wide cloth strapping." ( I KNOW this one isn't police, since it lacks the red or green color trim. ) Other "irregular" features include the SLIDE ( which DOESN'T - it's stiched in place ) which seems to be made of a silver metallic flat braid-style material, looking to me much like the texture of NCO tresse; a rather fatter-than-normal ball, SLIGHTLY wider at bottom than top; not sure about the fabric insert in the ball bottom - it's also a woven fabric, alternating silver and dark gray, like the colors of the strapping.
Obviously, my questions are: did the Heer have variants of these with fabric strapping in addition to the usual leather? Could its bluish-gray color indicate Luftwaffe? Could it be Wiemar or even Imperial rather than Third Reich? If Third Reich might it be a late variant made when leather was becoming scarce ( a'la the [I]ersatz presstoff[I] used in some items of field gear )? Is it perhaps not even German; this Pennsylvania dealer also had a LOT of Russian items? If this IS a Heer style, is it more appropriate for an officer or NCO? Regardless, I've decided to keep it, because as I said it looks good on my ALCOSO NCO, which is in a little bit nicer condition than my E.Pack & Sohne leopard-head officer's model, which shows the wear to its gilding from having had one of these before.
( I've also posted this inquery on the Axis History Forum in substansially the same wording, C/W pictures; I tried uploading the pictures here, I think unsuccessfully. They CAN be seen there, however. )
ANY information on this will be greatly appreciated!