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05-23-2019 05:33 AM
# ADS
Circuit advertisement
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You refer to the Wayne Techet book and yes, the fleur-de-lis motif used as a "bookend" was the exclusive design used by Carl Eickhorn, and they did not supply their designs to other companies. The Alcoso company did not design their own etchings but bought designs from F.W.Holler, who did not use the design on your Fire sidearm.
Which means the etching is fake. In fact even without knowing the pedigree of the design just looking at the etching with it's spidery edges show a very poorly executed etching. Compare it to the sharp clean lines of the picture of the Eickhorn design in the book and you see how inferior this is. So without question a post war etching added to a Third Reich era Fire fahrtenmesser.
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Strange is here the damaging of left side of blade so its possible the BerufsFeuerwehr Muenchen is old etch, and the otherside when not damaged by inner spring could be made later, but comparing here a Wehrmacht etch with Fireworker sidearm is certainly not correct. Not enough clear pictures here. wout flashlight on not sunny day,on neutral one color background should be made.b.r.Andy
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Johnson Reference Books
what do you guys think of this one??
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Andy raises the question that maybe the BerufsFeuerwehr Munchen etching might be TR period. I believe not, due to the the same poor etching quality issues especially seen on the left side of the etching. Neither side displays the quality of the master etcher that was typical of the era. Adding etchings to Fire side arms was common since the 1970's at least.
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By good pictures You will see it, it could be real as the areas of cleaning rust are heavy not raised in one decade, when the etch is under it so it could be real, similar etches could be obtained by distributor, it should be not delivered by ACS so. As mentioned these pictures are not good enough to made any opinion. The complet looks as nice, frog, knot and Faschinenmesser. b.r.Andy
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The photos are adequate to see it's bad, but I would suggest to the original poster to send his photos to Wayne Techet to get his opinion. He does have a website.
Also, refer to the thread "Fire bayonet with motif pattern" started by Colt1911 on 2/15/2019. It shows another similar etching.
Fire bayonet with a motif pattern
Last edited by Anderson; 05-27-2019 at 08:27 AM.
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do you happen to know his email?
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by
DerDer
do you happen to know his email?
If you use the advanced search option you can type user name Colt1911 and then you can send him a PM or email him yourself.
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Sorry for the late reply, I didn't see this thread originally. I was offered this exact same bayonet by Craig gottlieb in 2001 or 2002. I've collected Feuerwehr blades for some time now and considered adding it to my collection but was too tied up in other things at the time so I passed. No question this is the identical item. It subsequently was on the Oakleaf Militaria website for many years, listed at roughly $2200. Quite a tidy sum for a humped up item.
A couple of years later, I picked up Wayne Techet's etched bayonet book through the old BCN (Bayonet Collectors Network) and learned about the fact that the etch in question was specifically an Eickhorn font and that Eickhorn was extremely proprietary with their wares so the likelihood an Eickhorn etch would appear on an Alcoso blade was essentially nil.
I have for 20 years collected fire bayonets in all aspects of maker marks, variations and types. I have also always sought out fire bayonets that were period etched and can tell you there are many fakes out there for every period example.
In studying this specific niche, I've learned certain common themes among the numberous fakes. While we see swazs on etched fire bayonets, it's been my experience that a swaz rarely if ever adorned a period etched fire bayonet. While the Polizei was not shy about its support for the NS regime, the Feuerwehr was largely apolitical and this can be seen with their lack of political statements rather opting for sentiments of camaraderie.
The term "Berufsfeuerwehr" does appear as a common theme along with varying locations, I can tell you that I have never observed what I consider to be a period Berufsfeuerwehr example. Years ago, Johnson had 2 or 3 on his site at the same time, none were correct.
In my observations, I've seen only a handful of correct, period etched fire bayonets and that alone should make you more than skeptical if ever considering such a purchase. If you do decide to buy such an item, stick with reputable sellers and always get a second (or third) opinion.
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