Kriegsmarine dirk with battleship for Review

[Marflower]

Hi
I wonder if you can help me with this fine quality Kriegsmarine officer's dirk. It is the version with the hammered scabbard and has a personalised blade. Generally I view any dirk with ships or submarines on it as highly dubious, but this one has an intact feel (i.e. not a marriage of fake blade to original dirk. The reason is that it seems to fit together extremely well, and the eagle pommel tightens to just the right level facing forward. The knot seems to have been there forever. The only thing I know is wrong is the handle wire, which the previous owner did to replace the twisted brass wire. I plan to try and find out some suitable gauge wire to replace that.
The blade has the name Otto Mehlau and the Kiel Memorial (which was finished in 1936, not postwar. It became a symbol of all Naval dead, notjust German, after WWII). On the otherside is the image of a battleship. It does not have the gaudy look of the copies you see.
Thanks in advance
Kind regards
John

[Marflower]

More photos

[Marflower]

And some more

[Marflower]

Closeups of the blade

[Marflower]

Clip bit to crossguard

[Marflower]

And some more

[Marflower]

And the knot, which looks intact and with the right wear

[Marflower]

I forgot to mention that there are no maker's marks on the blade or tang that I can see

[Ostmaerker]

If I am not mistaken, every etch with the Laboe-memorial is post-war.
That´s at least my point of knoledge.

Ostmaerker

[Marflower]

That's what I thought. However, the look and construction of this dirk is making me think again. The seller had inherited from his grandfather and did not ascribe it any special value, above that of a standard Naval dirk. The fact that it fits so well together is also puzzling. It's normally hard to marry pieces on an original dirk, as they are very individual pieces.
The Laboe Memorial in Kiel was started in 1927 and finished in 1936, as a memorial to fallen sailors of WWI. It became a memorial to WWII after the War, later on, in the 50s, becoming a memorial to sailors of all nationalities.

[lakesidetrader]

Blade is post-war etched. Grip wire is unknown to me, never seen that before.

[Bulldog]

All the fittings (pommel, grip without wire, crossguard, buffer pad, scabbard) are all Eickhorn, blade i don't know.

Russ.

[Br. James]

Very nice piece. The warship etched onto the blade appears to be one of the three Deutschland-Class Armored Ships (Panzerschiffe) -- Deutschland (later renamed Lützow), Admiral Scheer and Admiral Graf Spee.

Br. James

[Marflower]

Thanks Russ

[Marflower]

Thanks Br. James