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09-10-2022 07:35 PM
# ADS
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Do you have any provenance? The blade may be one made by Muller but may never have been presented. The story behind these blades is in the Biography of Jim Atwood, by Kenneth Alford, see P.107. Atwood met Paul Muller who showed him his collection of unissued damascus blades, SS daggers and sword. Atwood bought the lot except for a few swords Muller wanted to retain. Honor blades not yet fitted with hilts Atwood likely constructed in the US back in the 1960's. That's why I ask the provenance, who has owned this rare sword type?
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An "interesting" blade from trying to evaluate how it was made - but even aside from it, the sword not one I would think about for myself for multiple reasons. That said, it would be good to get some better high resolution images* with some of them also focused on that long crack-delamination on the motto side. Best Regards, Fred
PS: In natural lighting if possible.
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Hi Stefan...glad you posted more photos here.
1st piece of advice right off the bat...is NEVER purchase anything high end valued or you are unsure of or just because someones name in lights says its good. COAs are only worth the paper they are written on.
Antique dealers wherever they are globally do not do what we do here on these forums...and its not just a break down study of details ...its to teach and also protect both the buyer and seller.
I remember seeing damast etch samples of the ricasso and a short length of blade and the Muller logo seen in the photo appears to be one of them...but I have never seen this logo actually on the blade tang.
Typically..with Mullers damast examples...are recessed etched intials PMD ...with the P being backwards.
The Himmler signature ...seeing this on the ricasso is a first for me ...which also includes the bright gold raised lettering of the motto as well.
What I see missing is the SS runes that should be flanking both sides of the motto ( Some advice of replies from some of the Swordsmen here would be appreciated. )
Another observation is what looks to be a freshly ground tang for some reason...and this is where I agree with Fred that greater photos are necessary.
There would be no reason to grind that out as these Muller blades were made perfectly and are highly coveted among SS sword collectors.
Im seeing the remants of Pauls fathers intials Alexander Muller ...but only the letter M...a sword of this Magnitude should not be without the A+M intials....so not sure why if such a high quality sword ..the tang would be ground down.
These are just some of my observations and should wait for more replies from some of the sword collectors here.
Regards Larry
It is not the size of a Collection in History that matters......Its the size of your Passion for it!!
- Larry C
One never knows what tree roots push to the surface of what laid buried before the tree was planted - Larry C
“The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” - Winston Churchill
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Photo #9 of the ricasso shows good fine detail around the damascus grain and it's looks like real damascus to me rather than the imitation etched damascus available with daggers. But a three quarter view of the blade spine would help to see of it matches. I agree the grinding (recent?) of the tang is a bit suspicious.
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Some conversation on this sword has gone on in the background, some don't want to comment on forum but in the interest of research and scholarship some comment should be made. In brief the concerns around this sword involve it's lack of wartime provenance. It is know that Paul Muller continued making damast blades post WW2, probably into the 1950's. This blade is genuine damast, and likely to have been made by Muller, the question revolves around when, pre 1945 or post 1945. And no one today can say for sure. A possibility is that the sword has been assembled post WW2 using a Muller blade. It's known Jim Atwood visited Muller in about 1962 at his home at Wuppertal-Croneburg (see Atwood biography by Kenneth Alford). Alford records Muller still had at the time a workshop and forge and produced a wooden chest full of over 100 damascus sword and dagger blades, which Atwood bought. It's possible this blade came from that box.
A second issue that would support post war assembly is that the hilt assembly doesn't have the typical Dachau fittings, in the ferrule and D guard.
So a likely Paul Muller blade, but no certainty around when he made it and some evidence that post war assembly is likely. A possible Jim Atwood link would swing suspicion in that direction as it was known he assembled parts daggers in the 1960's.
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