DRK Leaders Dagger. Opinions please?

[Grofaz45]

Hi Everyone, I haven't posted on here for a very long time as I have been fighting a losing battle with the BIG C anyway enough of that! I went to a militaria fair in Newark UK today and after looking at many daggers some very nice but some well aghhhh! So I settled on purchasing this DRK Leaders Dagger. Please correct me if I'm wrong but I think this is the so called Social Welfare version due to the round scabbard rings it also has what I believe to be the PDL type eagle roundel. It appears to be in very nice condition with a bit of lifting and bubbling on the plating, the grip has no cracks or chips, the screws all look unmessed with, the blade is unmarked which I also believe is correct for these daggers and seems to have all it's original crossgrain polish. The only thing I've done to it since getting it home is give it very light coat of Renwax allowed it to dry and gently wiped it off purely for protection/preservation. However as I have never owned the Officers type before I would appreciate any opinions about this piece.
Many thanks, Andy.

[M.E.E.]

Sorry to hear about your battle, hopefully things will get better. You are right you have a very nice Social Welfare dagger with all the hallmarks of a PDL made blade. Nice to see the nut is undamaged, and it is a great dagger for any collection. Good find.

[Grofaz45]

Thanks M.E.E. that has put my mind to rest that I got a good one and I know that you have done a lot of research on DRK blades so your opinion means a lot to me.
Cheers, Andy.

[Rossi]

nice dagger

[Stevade]

Nice Dagger … I maybe corrected here …. I have recently read that DRK Leader Daggers have either the Rectangular Scabbard Bands as well as the Round Ones … the difference was purely down to the Daggers Manufacturer.
The only way to distinguish either Dagger was by the Hangers that were attached.

[M.E.E.]

This is not correct, it is possible to find both round and square made by two of the three manufactures. Klass mostly made square holed scabbards but also made a small number of round holed ones. PDL mostly made round holed scabbards but also made a small number of square. Both are distinctively different and you can look at the placement of the the hole, the size of the hole and the length of the scabbard bands to tell the manufacture. Example look at the holes on this PDL posted, now look at the holes on this Klaas Social Welfare Leader Dagger | Lakesidetrader. PDL holes are almost always centred between them (there are some outliers) and they used a very crisp corner scabbard bands while the Klaas ones are more sloppy and the hole placement is different. These difference can also be seen on square holes with each manufacture having very distinct hole and bands.

[Stevade]

Hi M.E.E

I wasn’t questioning the difference in either the Round Hole Manufacturer or the Rectangular Manufacturer… and the noticeable differences between the two, I was purely making a comment that either the round or rectangular dagger could be worn with either Social Welfare Hangers or the Red Cross Hangers.
That was the only distinguishable difference if you were a Red Cross Leader or a Social Welfare Leader and nothing to do with the shape of the Dagger Cut Outs to Clip the Hangers.
The Round Hole Versions are harder to come by so making them a bit more desirable I think.

[M.E.E.]

I used to track sales and pictures of DRK daggers and out of a sample size of 200 leaders daggers 50 were round 150 were square. 128 of those 150 having the eagle associated with the Klaas and 20 PDL eagle 2 other. 50 round 3 with an eagle associated with Klaas and 47 PDL.
60 with hangers -
24 Social Welfare hangers 14 on round holes 10 on square holes
36 Red cross hangers 0 on round holes 36 on square holes.
Statistically there should have been 6 social welfare on round holes and 18 on square and 9 Red cross on round holes and 27 on square but that isn't what we see.
The numbers of course can be messed up when it comes to hangers since I did record where there were found (forum or retail) I did not have any way to record if they were vet picked or if the hangers were added after, but with that said the numbers did show that the round holes didn't have any Red cross hangers out of the ones recorded.
Of course this is just information gathered from the information I can find, things can be messed up but I thought the numbers were interesting. Sorry if this is rambling it is 4 am and I couldn't sleep...

[Stevade]

You certainly have been busy studying these DRK’s …. Well my DRK has Rectangular ones but fitted with Social Welfare Hangers, maybe a mismatch but that’s how I acquired it about 25-28 years ago.

Thanks for sharing your findings.

[M.E.E.]

You certainly have been busy studying these DRK’s …. Well my DRK has Rectangular ones but fitted with Social Welfare Hangers, maybe a mismatch but that’s how I acquired it about 25-28 years ago.

Thanks for sharing your findings.

I have a theory and it is just that at this point. I think that the square and round holes might have been made at slightly different times. Do remember this is just a theory, klaas get the majority of the original red cross contract, PDL getting a smaller order. Social welfare requires another contract and PDL gets the majority of this one. Those that already had klaas rectangles get moved to social welfare, receive new hangers. Of course all speculation, would love to see if anyone has been able to get into the DRK war procurement records to see when these were ordered. BTW thanks for the conversation, sometimes just need to nerd out about DRK daggers..