Himmler Dagger

[leondes]

Hi,

Here is a link to pictures. I welcome your comments.

http://lmd-militaria.com/page0275.htm

Regards, Leon

[Don Prince]

Hi Leon,

The only comment I have is it looks like the cross gaining has been added to the blade and thus the damage to the Maker Mark...

Regards,
Don_

[jancz3rt]

Hmmm

One more little detail I noticed was that the eagle is likely a replacement judging by the marks around it. Further, it seems to me that the grip to cross guard fit is not the greatest either.

JAN

[Billy G]

Ii can't speak to the crossgraining being added but the grip eagle has definitely been removed (& probably replaced) at some point.

[Don Prince]

(top Photo) The maker mark looks to have been heavily damaged by a sanding process... (Bottom Photo) The upper right hand corner of the photo has a runner mark with the cross graining marks on the worn out valley. I believe this would be an impossible situation for an untouched original blade. IMHO this looks to possibly be a worn out original blade that should have been left alone.

[CharlesSummers]

Is that a brown dagger? Or is the orange background throwing the color off?

[Craig Gottlieb]

Wolfe and Hardin had the nicest Himmler I've seen in AGES. A truly MINT unissued specimen.

[cogwheel]

The dagger is undoubtedly original but has been handled by too many careless individuals. An attempted fix to repair any damages was botched which just added to the overall misfit of parts and the current condition. A more professional repair would be in order.

[Craig Gottlieb]

I would agree. Since it's been degraded by poor repair work, you would not be damaging history by restoring this piece. Wittmann advertises that he has a good restoration person on staff.

[cogwheel]

I also want to add that the grip is ebony wood. Contrary to common believe ebony is not uniformly black but has streaks of brown or gray. As a result ebony handles were mostly stained to achieve a uniform black color.
Since ebony wood is quite brittle and hard it easily chips in those areas in contact with the cross guards.
The bottom line is that the grip is unquestionably ebony wood.

[cogwheel]

And I agree with Craig, the cost of a professional repair would be well worth it.