Here's a project piece I picked up with some other stuff a week or so ago, price was right, its an Alcoso and has beautiful stag on the grips, all in all a decent piece.
Fritz
Fritz
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Hi Fritz,
I'm not sure what a "project piece" means, but the first thing I notice from your photo is that the scabbard tip hardware is absent! That is about all I can say about this piece from only one photo.
Br. James -
Yes, it's missing it's lower fitting, I'll post a few more pics tonight, its a decent piece but not sure if this should be relay aged to parts or let someone restore.
FritzComment
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Heres a few more pics.
FritzComment
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scabbardComment
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Hi again, Fritz,
Thanks for your clarifying response. As to your quandary: "...not sure if this should be relay aged to parts or let someone restore" ...I would say 'neither!' It's no secret that I oppose most efforts to "restore, repair, improve or upgrade" artifacts -- other than to lightly clean them or to prevent further deterioration -- as I believe artifacts are and should be seen as historical pieces as they were actually found, not as pieces that someone has tried to return to their original condition, "just like new." In the end, it is not possible to recreate the past, since the effects of age alone take their toll...and we're talking about three-quarters of a century of aging, if not longer!
The results of most efforts to "restore" artifacts turn out to look like what we term "fakes, parts daggers or Frankensteins," no matter what the original intention of the "restorer" was. With the case in point, RAD EM Hewers were actually practical tools often used in the field as the RAD Member worked at the assignment he was given, and the condition of such 'tools' is expectedly poor -- often with chipped and/or scratched blades, broken grips and scraped and dented scabbards...just as this piece's scabbard displays. (The RAD Officer's Hewer was much more a dress piece than was its EM counterpart.) So, were the choice mine, I would choose to leave this piece as you found it -- probably the way it has been ever since before the GI brought it back home in 1945. IMO, of course!
Br. JamesComment
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Thanks for your input.
FritzComment
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Fritz,
Maybe the bottom fitting was taken off was a simple way to remove the Swastika, thus denazified by the vet ?
just a thought
Mac 66.Comment
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Good thought!
FritzComment
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I would doubt very much that any US vet would seek to 'de-Nazify' any artifact that he had brought back home after WWII; indeed, the presence of the swastika and/or other Nazi symbolism was exactly the reason why the vet wanted that piece in the first place. After all, these were war trophies...! I believe the attempts at 'deNazification' were made by the families of German soldiers and by the postwar German government itself, in order to cloud the shame felt by losing the war...while not actually destroying all of the relic reminders of that loss.
That being said, a US vet's family or a successive owner of the piece who isn't a collector himself may well have different ideas about what is appropriate to keep in one's home and what is not. In that case, I would not be surprised to know that someone removed the bottom scabbard fitting from the hewer in order to get rid of the hated swastika.
But for collectors, neither action does anything to enhance the value or the attraction of the piece in question.
Br. JamesComment
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Again, thanks for you input
FritzComment
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