Navy Cadet Dirk? Anyone Actually seen One?

**Bruce Pennington** · 07-10-2020, 04:58 AM

Trying to chase down the question on how to distinguish between the Navy Cadet Dirk, posted on Ohmura's site, and the Senior Foresters dirk shown in Fuller & Gregory. Ohmura's site doesn't show enough detail to see what sets it apart.

Anyone have examples of the cadet dirk, or mil specs that would clarify the differences?

Thanks!

**Jareth** · 07-10-2020, 05:03 AM

Here's link to sticky post by Nick discussing dagger in question Unraveling the Mystery of an Unidentified Navy Dagger Design

**Bruce Pennington** · 07-10-2020, 05:25 AM

Thanks for the link Jareth! So, comparing that to the 1903 Senior Forestry dirk in F & G, the only differences I see are the curvature at the top of the backstrap and maybe leaf patterns on the saya?

**Nick Komiya** · 07-10-2020, 07:18 PM

As I already pointed out in another thread, what they call a 1903 Forester dagger is simple shabby mis-identification by the authors. The 1903 forester's dagger had no navy cherry blossom in the grip and came in black leather scabbards, so no need to worry about telling them apart.

**Bruce Pennington** · 07-11-2020, 06:09 AM

Thanks Nick! so are both dirks in my post above, Cadet dirks?

**Nick Komiya** · 07-11-2020, 02:10 PM

Yes, that type of design went extinct in the navy since 1914, making them a scarce oddball variant unrecognizable as navy today by those only used to seeing post 1914 designs. Thus they get placed in the wrong slot by authors trigger happy to give them a name.

**Bruce Pennington** · 07-11-2020, 02:56 PM

Nick, In the figures posted, neither the cadet nor the forestry dirks have sakura. Were they added at a later date on the cadet dirks (pictured above)?

**Nick Komiya** · 07-11-2020, 05:28 PM

A good point. I myself did not realize it until you brought it up, but detailed comparisons of navy uniform regulation specs reveal that the cherry blossom serving as the Menuki design only began with the new regulations announced on 1914 Feb. 26 and daggers prior to this change only used a plain screw. The previous regulation change was back in 1896 Oct. 6th. The following illustrations compare the drawings announced in the government gazette.
This further reveals that the cadet dagger with cherry blossom Menuki must have been a retroactive update added to a pre-1914 example.