The Tom Kendall Heer Collection and Military Antiques

[Scout]

A great Collection.

[PeterCollector]

Hi Tom, ALCOSO is my favorite producer, I like his daggers and you show us very early first pattern dagger! That one is still missing in my collection, so I like it too much. Engraved family crest on crosguard is outstanding - really piece of art... Tom you are very lucky if you have dagger like that in collection.

Thanks for showing to us, it is really pleasure to see early Alcoso dagger!

Regards Peter

[T Kendall]

Here’s an interesting variation from Richard Plumacher. This dagger was made shortly after their initial production model that sported a slant grip and early generic Type-2 crossguard. This dagger is made from a lightweight base metal. The whole dagger exhibits plate lifting a common problem with this combination of a lightweight base metal and silver plate. While not minty for me the crossguard makes up for any anxieties caused from the condition issues. The army has an early 14 leaf pommel and a heavily enhanced Pack Type-2 crossguard that I instantly fell in love with. After the initial production slant grips you see Plumachers with these heavily chiseled guards that rival Pack & Klaas they are very seldom seen as are the early slants by this producer. The lightweight scabbard has bands that exhibit early quality the center reversed placed screw is a unique desirable variation. The blade while showing its age has a touch of crossgrain. Several producers experimented with this lightweight base metal IMO they felt the lighter dagger would be more desirable to the officer who was going to carry it all day and perhaps was cheaper to produce. This Plumacher came from a house cleaning sale in Pennsylvania and obviously lay poorly stored for many years but I am glad it survived intact. Most general collectors would pass on a dagger such as this but for the Heer specialist it’s these variations that excite us and keep us interested and pursuing the hunt.

[jimpy]

Brilliant collection!

I have added it to the "favourites" list, not only for the obvious reasons of "reference" but also as a reference guide for my other hobby of model making.

A big thank you from me.

Regards etc
Ian D

AKA: Jimpy

[T Kendall]

Thanks Ian! I really appreciate that

Brilliant collection!

I have added it to the "favourites" list, not only for the obvious reasons of "reference" but also as a reference guide for my other hobby of model making.

A big thank you from me.

Regards etc
Ian D

AKA: Jimpy

[T Kendall]

Thanks to some help from a few other collectors on another forum I believe this is the officer who owned the Alcoso. I suspected the dagger belonged to someone important but this exceeded my wildest expectations.

[Chopperman]

Tom,
Having a dagger named to a RK winner is pretty impressive.
My Heer collection consists of one very common dagger in
average condition. So looking through your website is pure
eye candy for me.

[heers68]

Super thread here honoring a close friend and hell of a guy! Tom has tought me a lot over the years and been someone I can Army dagger obsess with and he understands! This my friends in the Heer collecting community, is one of, if not the BEST and most complete early Heer dagger collections in the WORLD..at your fingertips! Thanks for this Tom and we look forward to seeing more! Kevin.

[T Kendall]

Kevin thank you my friend I am very honored by your words. I am thankful to have such a great friend and confidant that love’s these army daggers as much as I do. You are certainly one guy in the field whose opinion I value and regularly ask for. I certainly have learned a few things from you over the years !

[T Kendall]

I was fortunate to pick up another Henckels recently. While studying the pair I noticed a few things that appear unique to Henckels. The pair mirrors each other nicely - like a set of twins. While Henckels did not make their own fittings the early examples I have seen are fitted with a Type-1 Pack crossguard just like many of the other smaller producers who out purchased fittings. What sets Henckels apart is the elaborate detail and quality of their product. They heavily enhanced their Pack crossguards each a unique miniature piece of art. I noticed a few similar enhancement techniques that appear on my two Henckels and several others I have looked at. These enhancements seem unique to the Henckels pieces. One is the detail applied to the eagles head. The punched eye - The beak enhancement and an enhancement to the right and left of the eye. The second and most interesting though is the detail work Henckels preformed to the pommels they punched perfect little circles in between the leaves in an effort to highlight the acorns. On the pommel close-up of the second example you can see this circular detail as well as the detailed area above the leaves in which a smaller circular tool was used. The first example has a poor blade while the second has a near mint blade. Any Henckels is collectible they are very scarce I have personally only seen a handful over the years they are highly prized by the Heer collector.