Luft Offivers Sword made by Helbig/Gaefler

[Vet44]

Hi Guys

Yesterday i found this nice untouched Luft Officer sword, made by Helbig.
Blade lenght is 720mm . Lenght total is 940mm.
Nickel Silver fittings, crossguard. The blue leather on the scabbard and Grip in good condition.

Hope you like it


Greetings Andi

[Vet44]

backside with hänger

[Vet44]

the crossguard

[Vet44]

the sun

[Vet44]

.

[Vet44]

...

[Vet44]

i think, this is a always nice one

[Jeff Nichols]

Very nice Luft by a maker you don't often see on these

[SwordFish]

Agree with Jeff.

One question that may or may not raise concern, though it may just be the photo deceiving me.

--The schwerts hilt is the nickel-silver type. Looks good. Take a look at the scabbard throat fitting and drag. It almost appears to be aluminum while thesaber is nickel-silver. Is this accurate? Or are both the scabbard fittings nickel-silver? If indeed the throat piece and drag is aluminum, I would then assume the fittings are replacements or even possible the scabbard itself. Photos can be VERY deveiving and perhaps this is not the case. I suppose even if the scabbard fittings are aluminum, I guess it would be possible that the manufacturer used fittings from other manufacturers..I just don't know. I can't recall coming accross any examples which were eralier silver-nickel with aluminum scabbard fittings.

Nice look schwert I must say and not a commonly seen mm. Like you said, the Morraccan blue leather on the scabbard looks nice.

Tom

[Vet44]

Agree with Jeff.

One question that may or may not raise concern, though it may just be the photo deceiving me.

--The schwerts hilt is the nickel-silver type. Looks good. Take a look at the scabbard throat fitting and drag. It almost appears to be aluminum while thesaber is nickel-silver. Is this accurate? Or are both the scabbard fittings nickel-silver? If indeed the throat piece and drag is aluminum, I would then assume the fittings are replacements or even possible the scabbard itself. Photos can be VERY deveiving and perhaps this is not the case. I suppose even if the scabbard fittings are aluminum, I guess it would be possible that the manufacturer used fittings from other manufacturers..I just don't know. I can't recall coming accross any examples which were eralier silver-nickel with aluminum scabbard fittings.

Nice look schwert I must say and not a commonly seen mm. Like you said, the Morraccan blue leather on the scabbard looks nice.

Tom

Hello Tom

I have made a picture. please take a look. I dont know... wait a moment !!

[SwordFish]

Vet44,

If you took another photo, it didn't show up. If you can, try to photo the scabbard fittings in a FEW (a couple are always better than one..use natural light, the light bulb, then a sharp light source like a flashlight) different lighting sources. Lighting can play tricks on photography. Then post the few photos. We may be able to confirm the material the fittings are made of.

Just for the record, i'm not saying the scabbard is definitely mismatched. It could be however. LIke I said, I can't recall coming accross an unmessed with fliegerschwert with mixed materials.

Are there any markings which match up the hilt to scabbard? School markings, unit markings, etc? Is it wafmt. marked?

Tom

[Vet44]

please take a look

[Vet44]

there is nothing replaced in my opinion

[Vet44]

the last picture.
what do you mean, alu and replaced ? .

I dont know ..

[SwordFish]

Vet44,

I sent you a PM

I still can't tell for sure, but those fittings look aluminum to me....and if I were a gambling man..which I am, i'd put my money on aluminum. Like I said, in my experience, i've never come accross an earlier nickel-silver piece with aluminum scabbard fittings. However, since Hel. made the scwhert, and they are a smaller cottage type manufacturer, I guess it's possible they purchased left over stocks from a larger firm and used those stocks, in this case aluminum, for the scabbard fittings. I just don't know.

You may want to contact the member "degens". He's a pretty hard-core fliegerschwert collector and may be able to give you an answer whether it's possible to find original, unmessed with nickel-silver examples with the aluminum scabbard fittings. The difference in patina/age on the hilt vs. the scabbard fittings would be attributed to the difference in material...nickel-silver being much more prone to oxidation than the aluminum scabbard fittings.

Hope this helps. The fit looks good though between the schwert and scabbard. That's a plus.