Malsch & Ambron Postwar Gravity Knife

[jamoros]

Hi guys, before anything else, I would like to thank you all for all your great help on this knife, it s been in my opinion a very interesting thread and hopefully it will help other members and fellow collectors in the future.

I have had the opportunity to talk to Peter and he has been both very friendly and above all very helpful, he is by all means a guru on this subject and fully recommend to you all to buy his book, the third edition is coming up very soon. I enclose below his details in case someone is interested to buy the book from him.

On another note I enclose also below his comments on this knife. Although it is a knife that was produced in the fifties, not long after the war is very very rare and to me that is a success.

“Hi Juan,

I will put you on the list for my book and you will hear from me in the next few weeks. There you can read all about your specific knife, the history of the company that made it and so on.

From all the intense research I did in the past few years, I am 95% sure that all Malsch & Ambronn knives (including and especially ones repaired by M&A - yours is not repaired, it is a later model, when they had run out of WW2 knives) are post war. Please excuse if I do not have the time to write a lot on the topic (therefor I wrote the book) but I will give you my 3 strongest reasons why they are post war:

- there is no Inspector´s stamp on the spike (eagle 5 or 8 or "S"), so it was never inspected by the Luftwaffe Armament office, now the guy can say it is a late knife (maybe 1944), but....

- your knife contains all stainless steel parts - in 1942 this material became so scarce that the Gravity knives from then on were manufactured from carbon steel - I prove that in my book; also in 1943 the R.B.Nr system was introduced and from then on all Gravity Knives had an RBNr instead of the maker mark on the blade (yours has a maker mark on the blade)

- last but not least: These knives were producd IAW with a rather strict design fixed in the Luftwaffe regulations (built to print) - in 1943 this design had changed to the take-down knives (Type II) and they had totally abandoned the Type I design. Now you could say well .... it may then be from 1940 ; that also can´t be because the single flat spring was never (between 1937-1945) mentioned in any Luftwaffe regulation describing the Gravity knife design.

Your knife is post war but indeed very rare - 600 bucks is a good price. Do not worry !

More very interesting details to be found in my book ! Check out this page:

Everything You Need to Know: Interview with Jan-Peter Brüning, author of the book Luftwaffe Gravity Knife: Weapon, Tool, Tradition – WW2Wrecks.com

Everything You Need to Know: Interview with Jan-Peter Brüning, author of...

Peter”

Page not found – WW2Wrecks.com

[MAP]

Larry: I would change the title of the thread to include the makers name to help with future searches

Jamoros. Great Info! Still a beautiful knife but unless you are primarily a blade collector and not a militaria collector I would hold out for a WW2 period example.

Also the link you provided did not work. Something about the path blocking it. I've added it below with the full path but with " marks

"http://www.ww2wrecks.com/portfolio/everything-you-need-to-know-interview-with-jan-peter-bruning-author-of-the-book-luftwaffe-gravity-knife-weapon-tool-tradition/"

Edit: BTW....what an interesting site "WW2wrecks.com". I will be a fun read.

[Anderson]

A good point MAP. It may be a rare post war knife, but the market demand is fueled by buyers of Third Reich era knives. So it's re- sale value in the future may disappoint.

[jamoros]

A good point MAP. It may be a rare post war knife, but the market demand is fueled by buyers of Third Reich era knives. So it's re- sale value in the future may disappoint.

As Peter and other knowledgable collectors have pointed out that the knife that I posted is well with Eur600. In time it may be double that as it is very scarce and an important variation.

I have bought it, since as said it is very scarce, been told that the factory had something in between 15 and 30 workers, therefore the number of knives produced was very low. Having said, although this knife was not produced during the war, this company produced in the fifties, not long after the war ended, having said that, this company initially repaired war period knives at the beginning

[MAP]

Congratulations. A great knife for a blade collector or someone focused on paratrooper knives.