Article about: Hi, mates ! Month´s ago I catched a, (seldom-seen !), machete of the Wehrmacht-Luftwaffe at a flea-market. Such machetes were originally manufactured for use in various south-american countr
Month´s ago I catched a, (seldom-seen !), machete of the Wehrmacht-Luftwaffe at a flea-market.
Such machetes were originally manufactured for use in various south-american countrie´s.
As WWII began, this contract´s became obsolete.
Later in war the Luftwaffe bought on-hand inventories of this machete, purchased on the civilian-market, to issue long-range bomber-crews and long-range reconnaissance aircraft-crew´s for theirs on-board rescue-equipment.
There´re two pattern machetes.
"Erstes Modell", (without sawback), and "Zweites Modell", (with sawback).
You can find this machetes with crossguard and pommel-plate made of brass, or, made of iron.
The Wehrmacht-Luftwaffe never ordered this pattern-machetes officialy under observance of any construction-guideline´s, ("RLM-Lastenheft" and, thus, no acceptance by the "Bauaufsicht Luftwaffe"), and this is the reason-why, there weren´t Luftwaffe acceptance-stamps marked on any parts of this pattern machete.
It might be possible, that in WWII lots of this WL-machetes put together with parts, taken of available stocks.
Also WWII-made scabbards were manufactured of stiched-together blue card-board, (carton) !
The original metal-scabbard of my machete is unfortunately missing but I´m very glad, that I was so lucky to get one of this rare machetes !
Dimensions:
overall lenght: apx. 52,5 cm
blade-lenght: apx. 40,5 cm
Hi Reibert, a rare item indeed the scabbards are even harder to find i believe and they fetch a very good price also for the machete and scabbards, nice find and thanks for showing,
cheers Ronnie
HELLO Reibert very nice machete! I also dream of one, I hope that I will be able to enrich my collection with a machete like yours. congratulations on getting
An interesting piece. He's right about the South American machete market. There was a surprisingly large trade in machetes presumably for sugarcane plantations and hacking vegetation in general. In one of my catalogues from late 1890's there are about 10 pages of different machete and axe models aimed at South America. WKC was another main producer.
yes, Danmark is very right! I found a lot of threads that are worth watching !!! I like to read the old threads, there is a lot of information that I am looking for. and sometimes I come across a thread that ended ten years ago, like this one with the LW machete
Survival tools like this one are now mostly seen in just collections, oftentimes older ones. The later iron/steel hilted versions sometimes with sawback blades. There is also a shorter/different type blade tool seen with some survival kits made most likely for use in the desert. Best Regards, Fred
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