M89 Prussian Infantry Officers Sword

[SCHUPO]

Ron,

A nice example of a so-called late war iron hilt by WK&C. These black finished iron hilt swords are not often seen and are not very popular with collectors since they do not polish up. They are actually quite scarce compared with the brass ones.

[SwordFish]

George-
Was there any special noted deliniation for the use of the "Iron Hilted" examples, as opposed to the more common, gilt hilted '89s? Or simply a matter of choice and/or pragmatic reasons like price?

Tom

[Frogprince]

Tom, Schupo is right on the money with this one. At one time or another you may have seen a Prussian issue blued hilt Infanterieoffizierdegen für Unteroffizier mit Portepee that I pictured next to the brass version. A Kriegsmodell version, they were made that way because brass was being conserved for cartridges. There has also been some discussion that it was also done to cut down on light reflections like the scabbards - but I have never seen a black painted brass version that I can remember offhand. So I think that the jury may be out on that. I would also offer RonR my observation that he may want to to put the sword in the scabbard with the ring facing up not down. Best Regards, FP

[gregM]

As always Ron, Great photos.

[SwordFish]

Fred,
I do believe indeed I recall your photo.

It's a nice looking specimine which I had yet to see. I had been paging through various references and wasn't able to find an example nor did some google searches return any results.
Tom