Imperial Eickhorn damascus dagger with m38 pommel and deluxe scabbard

[TicTac]

It looks to me like a German Naval dagger, but which model?

[theaussie]

It looks a beauty. I think it is a WW1 or slightly earlier family piece that has been updated by the addition of a Third Reich pommel for wear during this period. More photos please but it looks like it has a damascus blade.

Cheers, Chris.

[TicTac]

It looks a beauty. I think it is a WW1 or slightly earlier family piece that has been updated by the addition of a Third Reich pommel for wear during this period. More photos please but it looks like it has a damascus blade.

Cheers, Chris.

The blade is indeed damascus.

[Dean]

It's def. a naval dagger

[davejb]

To me it looks like a converted WW1 dagger, the grip and eagle appear to be added to a WW1 blade and scabbard, i think the eagle is on the wrong side but the dagger itself is in the scabbard wrong, ive not seen one with silver wire on the grip but that could just be me.To be honest i dont like whats been done, i cant make up my mind if its a parts dagger that someones made up or if its period done, im leaning towards parts dagger, if someone had been issued a WW1 dagger during the correct period and they later went on to serve in the Third Reich Kriegsmarine, then another 1st or 2nd model dagger would have been issued and there would have been no need to ruin an Imperial naval dagger and i cant see a veteran of WW1 doing this to his prized dagger, these naval officers were extremely proud of their service both in WW1 and 2

[big ned]

I think this is an original 1901 pattern naval dagger. The double twist wire binding on the grip is o.k. for this model. The scabbard is a nice 'Deluxe' type, shame about the portapee missing, I'd like to see if it was an imperial one or not.

A possible reason for the imperial crown being replaced by the eagle is that perhaps the dagger was passed down father to son, and he updated it to a 3rd Reich type eagle, who knows? I still like it.

Regards, Ned.

[davejb]

Hi Ned i thought the imperial portapees had red flecks in the cord but i dont see any in this one, i wasnt sure on the colour wire used , i thought it was always a brass wire on naval daggers

[big ned]

Hi Dave,

I agree with you on the portapee, I didn't look closely at the imageshack photo's but can now see that the portapee is 3rd Reich and not imperial.

As for the wire binding it was not uncommon for officers to add their own in either single or double twist to daggers that originally had none. In 1916 brass became a vital war commodity, and was no longer used as the binding on naval daggers, it either having steel or none at all.

Finally, here is a quote from Bruce Petrin at German Dress Daggers.com regarding what I suggested as a reason for the adding of the eagle to an imperial dagger, I just found it when looking for examples of the portapee.

"Many Imperial daggers were upgraded by simply replacing the Imperial Pommel with the Nazi pommel. This is very common for a dagger with a damast blade or Ivory grip handed down from father to son etc."

Regards, Ned.

[Andrew]

i would have expected to see the letters CE under the logo, perhaps its a vareation. i was my understandng that military officers were not issued daggers, but had to buy them out of their own pocket. thats why the sales catalogs had style options. i think it was common to try and save money by re using some things.
andrew

[davejb]

Thanks Ned, i suppose we will never know why it was done but have to take it on faith that it was a period alteration, for some reason i am still at odds with it, i suppose its because its out of the norm, but all the parts are original as far as i can tell, i would be tempted to add a better portapee, i think it would set it off more