Luftwaffe forestry knife Waffen-Loesche Ch. A. W.

[gerrit]

#i have communicated with Billy and he stated following about the Alcoso knife and i quote:
" The Alcoso was numbered, had the Ch A.W. & also had a waffe namt mark underneath one of the grips, like the early RLB & DLV daggers.
Will try to find contact info for him but it's been a long time & I've changed computers so I may have lost his info. Will also look for pics."

I have been searching for a Waffen-Loesche catalogue for days in a row, nothing came up sofar unfortunate.
I did find a Loesche knife with very interesting markings on the tangside between the gripplates, thats a first time for me!
It also bears the arsenal number on ricasso and scabbard.
Can somebody identify these markings?

Best
Ger

[gerrit]

Some extra Waffen-Loesche info i found on a guns forum:

Adolf Loesche, Hoflieferant in Magdeburg

He was a firearms merchant that sourced his wares from gunmaking centres, where it was cheaper to have them manufactured. There they took his order, but it to spec & then put his name atop. It is possible that some adornment was applied @ Waffen Loesche and some repairs were made there. But there wasn't a manufacturing facility there.


Adolf Loesche, A. Helmuthauser & G. Loesche - Hannover - Gr. Packhofstrasse 21 was his other retail outlet. Adolf Loesche opened his shop at Koelner Str.13, Magdeburg, in 1873. Son Gustav Loesche took over in 1905 and by 1916 Waffen-Loesche, Magdeburg is listed at Wilhelmstrasse 13 (street renamed?). In 1916 he acquired the remains of the bankrupt/defunct Stendebach & Co, Suhl. He closed this Suhl branch in 1926. His branch in Berlin is documented post-WW1 only, 1925-1941. Adolf Loesche, Grosse Packhofstrasse 21, Hannover branch was opened in 1919, together with A. Helmuthauser.

[Tomaz]

This makes zero sense in German.

"Anbieten" is a verb and it means to offer, provide, supply, present etc.

Even though it will probably still make zero sense in German (i don't speak German) you missed out the important definition when you google anbienten.....volunteer. It doesn't matter though, like i said i'm just throwing ideas into the pot.

Tomaz.

[gerrit]

To clearify:
Gents its about the markings in the red marked area, if any one can see what they are please post!

[Mac 66]

Ger,


Looks like P-2P-FG4G or F-ZP-FG4G


Regards Mac 66

[HPL2008]

Even though it will probably still make zero sense in German (i don't speak German) you missed out the important definition when you google anbienten.....volunteer. It doesn't matter though, like i said i'm just throwing ideas into the pot.

I am German and I can assure you that the German translation of "volunteer" is "freiwillig" (adjective), "Freiwilliger" (noun) (each with various endings depending on number, gender and grammatical case) and "sich freiwillig melden" (verb).

"Sich anbieten" can be translated as "to volunteer" only in the sense of offering to do something; it has nothing to do with a volunteer in the military sense.

No offense, but throwing around random speculative interpretations with no factual support is not likely to get us any closer to the truth.

[Tomaz]

No offense, but throwing around random speculative interpretations with no factual support is not likely to get us any closer to the truth.

You don't know that, sometimes you have to speculate to accumulate.

[HPL2008]

Yeah, whatever.

I'm done with this thread.

[Frogprince]

These new photos show some things that I had already suspected, and some things that I had not considered. The reflections inside the stampings on the blade do not show the age that you might normally expect on a fairly well used knife. But are not that unusual with a blade (only) that's plated or stainless steel. With the guard having the normal aging that you would expect of carbon steel, and the screws/spanner nuts on the grip not showing the green verdigris of nickel silver but instead may be plated(?). However it's the tang markings that are really what got my attention. They are definitely not like the average TR period Luftwaffe markings that I've seen. Instead they seem more modern. Is there anything that says that the knives cannot be multigenerational? Best Regards, Fred

[gerrit]

Gents can we please stick to the subject, i highly appreciate the input that HPL2008 has on this thread.
I also know that his translations are very accurate as my German is pretty well and my English aint that bad either.
We are trying to sort out which organisation has issued these knives and i would pity it if HPL would leave this thread.

Regards
Ger