Sa dagger rzm m7/42

[georgi]

Hello. I am showing an authentication dagger that I bought some time ago. After doing some research, two things remain that bother me. There is a gap on the side of the handle and the cross guard, also on the top guard. On the inside of the cross guard there is a marking "P1" which I do not find on other examples, there are also two circles that are obtained during the casting of the metal, but these were shown more on fake cross guards.

[Larry C]

Hi Georgi ...this dagger is totally correct and I will separately speak about the grip later on in this post.

The P1 you see inside the guards are correct and is known that WKC ( Weyersburg Kirschbaum & Cie ) with their RZM permit number M/42
Those circles you see inside the guards are injection mold points ...and is very common to see in late period crossguards. Technology advanced a little later during the Third Reich period and also the use of cheaper materials that replaced nickel used on early guards.

The Tang marking that looks like a large letter H with a small c and a ...stands for Carl August Hartkopf ..a drop forge Blade manufacturer and also supplied blade blanks to WKC.

Now the grip ....it is common to see a not so tight fit on later production period dagger grips to crosguards. ...the bottom grip that you are holding in your hand seems to have more of a gouge on the left side more so than the right...yet it does not look recent and may have been fitted onto the tang quickly to get the dagger completed and out the door.

I have seen worse ,,,,but IMO a decent dagger and thankyou for posting the extra photos to help authenticate the fittings to the rest of the dagger.
Regards Larry

[georgi]

Larry C I see you like these daggers and thanks for the detailed explanation. I think that this type of dagger requires detailed research due to the many manufacturers and the possibility of coming across a dagger with different parts and adding fakes the possibility of deception is very high.

Thanks Georgi.