2 SA Daggers; comments please.

[Harvey A]

Hello again,

These two SA daggers are available locally but I don't know which is the better deal. The owner likes the Bickel because of the darkness of the motto and wants $600 for it. The other dagger is $400. Both scabbards are anodized brown and look pretty nice, but the photos show them dark. Are these daggers original? are they fairly priced? After these I have only one more post and will leave you guys alone for a while.

Thanks for your help,

Harvey

[Harvey A]

Maker's mark

[Harvey A]

Motto on Bickel

[Harvey A]

2nd SA Dagger

[Harvey A]

Maker mark on second, (blurred photo; sorry)

[Harvey A]

Reverse of Weyersberg

[Tim B.]

Harvey,

As nobody has answered just yet and I'm no expert on SA daggers, I would point you to this link: http://www.lakesidetrader.com I'm not promoting this dealer, though I think he's got some good items and knows what he's doing. What may give you a better understanding is the write ups he has on the daggers and specifically his write-up on SA daggers and what to look for. Think it will help.
Tim

[Colorado]

It's tough to tell from the pictures. This is only an impression. Both daggers looked like the blades were cleaned in addition to the crossguards. Would need to see if that burnishing is good on the Bickel. The second one, hmmmm that crossguard does not look like a match for the scabbard. But it could be the photo though.

[schönbeck]

if you dont care about the maker, you can buy some much cheaper than the prices you mention.

[Skipper Greenwade]

Both appear to be original, but may have been cleaned. It doesn't appear that the cleaning did any real harm. The Bickel is a really nice dagger, but IMO it is slightly overpriced. The Weyersberg is probably priced about right, but you're not going to make any money on it anytime soon - it would have to be one you were buynig for the collection and were planning to keep for a while.

Hope that helps,
Skip

[Harvey A]

Thanks for all your advice. I'm going to let the seller sit on these two for a while to see if he'll drop his price. Is it a problem that the Weyersberg has the "S" mark on the motto side of the crossguard rather than on the maker-mark side?

Again, Thanks,

Harvey

[Colorado]

The crossguard has been switched around backwards at some point in it's existance. So you know the dagger is not untouched.

[Craig Gottlieb]

Note the laqueur on the grip - another characteristic of Bickel SAs, the percentage presence of said laqueur playing an important part in the valuation of this dagger. I agree with Skip - slightly overpriced, even at full-bore retail.