Pionier items - value??

[Mike Bollow]

Greetings!

I am being offered a few pionier items and I'd be grateful for your opinion on current market value. It has been a LONG time since I bought field equipment!

1) Long handled wire cutters with canvas case. The blades are in good shape, the handles are nice and not falling apart. The case is solid and the leather at the bottom is perfect.

2) Right side pionier pouch. Looks perfect from the photos.

Thank you!

Mike

[Mike Bollow]

People love pictures...

[Mike Bollow]

What's with the short cutters and case? Swiss?

[Mike TM]

Hello Mike, about the long wire cutters, is more rare the case than the cutter, and I would say 300-400$ for the complete set. I have doubts about the short cutter. I post a photo of mine to compare.

regards
Mike

[Fsoq]

The short cutter looks good but handfuls (wich were made in pressed paper) are missing. We found a lot of "without handfuls short cutters" coming from the battle of the bulge and I cannot be sure that they actually lost their handfuls, because of use for instance, or if they were made like this way for "economic" reason as often late in the war. About the pouch, never seen one like it but better pics could help. Only saw them in web material and in black presstof or leather.

[Fsoq]

And even if the little side loop of the saw pouch is missing, still quite scarce item !

[whsammler]

Mike at first look I think the canvas pouch is a repro. There have been alot of these on the market in the past few years all look very close and are made with period parts (old rucksacks and leather fittings) too fool collectors. I purchased one back in 2002 knowing it was a repro just to see how it was made and it looks good & accurate but that patina is way off.

If you can get some detail photos of the wire cutter pouch I can get you a more accurate assesment.

The scabbard for the pioneer saw looks ok other than the missing bayo loop......and saw .

Be carefull with the side pouch....FAKES ARE EVERYWHERE!!!!! These have been faked for years and still are being made today...every few months a set will show up on eBay and sell for good $$$$..... . Once again these are made with period hardware and the real high end fakes are being made with period material..old rucksacks etc so its getting harder and harder to spot them.....but if you look close you can see the patina is not right...and the fakers just cant get that down....thank god!!!.

The leather pouch may be Swiss or somthing else does not look German WWII to me.

The flag pouch may be WWII vintage but I cant say for sure. I have a presstoff set in my pioneer collection and have only seen these in presstoff....all of the canvan units seem to get the cold shoulder as fakes...but I have no proof....it just seems to be the general consencus. I think at some time early post war these where used by the DDR and other eastern bolc nations and where modeled after the WWII units. So many of them are sold today as "tropical" to get a higher price.

It has been my experience that any of the WEB pioneer equipment is exceedingly rare and comands top dollar so the fakers are all over it...as its cheap & easy to produce and will get you a good return on your investment.

So if you can get some better photos we can go from there and see if this stuff is ok or........... .

[michiel01]

Hello Mike,

The lightbrown case for the small cutter looks like a swiss case. Has it a single loop and an a metal "twisted" hook ? If yes, then it is defenitly swiss.

regards,

Michiel