My new Alcoso Heer Sword, general advice & portepee identification

[TheJackal83]

Hi fellow collectors!

I recently aquired my first third reich sword and wanted to share it with you guys and ask for some advice at the same time (yupp; what started out as a modest medal collection is growing... ESCALATING - fast)! I posted some pictures of it over in the collection display section too, but since then I have cleaned it, removed rust from the blade and managed to find a proper portepee.

I had previously bought another portepee, at the same time that I bought the sword, which I was assured was correct for the sword, but since I couldn’t find a single reference that matched my portepee (formerly black, now brown leather with 3 rows of silver and green stitching along with a golden bullion having dark green filling) I decided to buy a new proper one based on what I have read is Heer.

Any idea what my old portepee might be? The last picture shows the sword still bearing this portepee.

The sword is an Alcoso Heer Sword and as far as I can tell, based on what I have read so far, it must be a fairly late model, since it has the AWS scale logo. I also believe that it might be a full iron construction, since there are some minor rust spots coming through on the pommel and handguard.

Allthough the sword cleaned up very well, there’s still a fair amount of patina left on the blade mainly, that seems to have suffered from improper storage for quite some time. I got rid of all the rust, but the blade is faded and some black spots remain.

I don’t want to ruin the sword’s antique value, so how much cleaning / restoration is too much? Would polishing the blade back to a mirror finish degrade it?

The scabbard has seen much better days for sure: It was covered in rust when I got it and while the active rust is now gone after cleaning - There are spots of missing paint all over.

So what about smoothening out (sanding) and repainting the scabbard? OK to do or too damaging to the collectibility value as well?

I’m confident that I can get the paintjob to look good, since I have experience refinishing other stuff, so a potentially botched paintjob is not the issue here - I’m just worrying about what’s damaging to the collectible value and what’s passable / OK.

Any advice, thoughts and general feedback on the sword (value, rare/common and so on) would be greatly appreciated, since this is my first sword (of any type and category)!

[TheJackal83]

Some more detail pictures of the hilt, which I feel is in very nice condition - Nothing loose or damaged and nice gilt (which makes it very tempting to buff the blade & scabbard into the same condition)!

[rbminis]

Any thoughts about restoring the blade to a mirror finish would remove most of the collector value to this sword.
Pretty much the same with the scabbard, to a lesser extent.
Repainted scabbards are picked up on pretty quickly by any knowledgeable collector.
Ralph.

[stingray]

exactly as Ralph say,WHY
it is good as is and if you buff the blade you will made big mistake.

[Anderson]

Just add my agreement with the earlier comments. It seems counter to what you might expect, but for collectors, "restorations" don't add any value or attraction, and may well reduce the value when attempting to sell the sword later. Best leave it alone, maybe a little light oil over the steel areas.

[TheJackal83]

Thank you for your replies!

I guess that confirms what I pretty much expected; just wanted to make sure. Don’t get me wrong: I would never ”restore” for example a helmet, by repainting it and adding shiny new decals and I steer way clear of restored helmets. It’s just that I watch alot of Wittmans videos on youtube and he often shows swords with restored scabbards, commenting that since it’s been done proffesionally; it’s not really a problem, so I started thinking that maybe it is OK to ”fix” a dinged up scabbard for a nicer display.

Regarding the blade; I kind of like the patina it has, but I figured I might as well ask about restoration consensus on blades too while I’m at it!

Any ideas about the old portepee?

What do you think about the sword in general? I like it alot, but since it’s my first one; I’m sort of fishing for expert opinions too - Would you too consider it ”worthy” for your collection? If not; why?

Either way: I have now decided to leave it as it is!

[Anderson]

The "old" portepee may have discoloured to a gold tinge. It may have been originally silver bullion. What colour is the dot at the end of the knot.

What you have on the sword now with green leather is a Reichswehr officer's portapee, so dating up to 1935. But these quite likely were used later on swords as well. Actually the black leather strap with 2 or 3 rows of silver stitching, silver knot with grey end dot is equally correct ( for Heer sword) and in fact that may be what your original "old" portepee is.

[TheJackal83]

The "old" portepee may have discoloured to a gold tinge. It may have been originally silver bullion. What colour is the dot at the end of the knot.

I need to crosscheck the dot color when I get back home from work, but I think it is a dark green / grey color. Even if it turns out to have been correct too; Still don’t regret buying the 2nd portepee since I feel it better matches the sword’s condition.

But very interesting to know that I might have 2 different styles of portepees for the heer sword - Doesn’t hurt the collection (I’m mainly focused on Heer Infantry)!

[TheJackal83]

Took some detailed pictures of the ”mystery portepee”. The dot is a dark green, not grey (looks alot greener when viewed in person).