Third Reich sword with addition eagle.

[Frogprince]

Thanks a lot for information provided. Taking into consideration manufactures variations, I`m still wondering why WKC attached eagles are mentioned in their catalogues and there are a lot of “real life” examples, while Eickhorn attached eagle seems to be not so common and there is no mentioning about attached eagles in Eickhorn catalogues. If we consider the way the eagle is attached to a langet, we can see that WKC eagle is affixed with prongs, Eickhorn is welded. I`d like to ask experienced collectors who have seen different patterns by different manufactures, if they can remember peculiar features inherent to any particular manufacturer.

Den, As Larry said your posts are interesting and informative - while also providing the opportunity to study more closely what makes this an interesting hobby. Prongs are the traditional method to attach appliqués for multiple reasons. They allow the hilt casting to be hand finished, polished and gold plated before completing the process by attaching the appliqué without damaging any of the already finished work. In the postwar era many different items these days have emblems attached with an epoxy type glue, which may or may not be discernible by a physical examination. With the example posted here from the images I don't think that it's actually welded, but instead is probably soldered on. Which is something that I personally don't' like to see because to me it suggests more of a postwar scenario because the process usually causes discoloration and sometimes some excess solder spillover into the already gold plated areas that is not very professional (IMO). Best Regards, Fred