Rudolf Karneth Kriegsabzeichen für Minensuch - U-Boots - Jagd - und Sicherungsverbände.

[Adrian]

Here is another of the Rudolf Karneth Minesweeper badge variants. It is a nine wave variant, counted by the number of wave lines beneath the waterspout and is variant M3.1.7.

The makers mark is plain block letters without serifs and with periods and unlike variant M3.1.8 which can be seen here, there is no die flaw on the reverse of the waterspout.

The base metal is zinc and it has a cast in hinge and crimped round wire ? mark shaped catch.

The majority of the original finish has been preserved with just a small amount of wear to the high points of the waterspout. interestingly you can see in the upright photo, the silver wash as been applied down the edge of the waterspout yet on the other side, (last image) the edge of the edge is coloured gold.

The above point and the gold colour showing through on the waterspout suggests the entire badge was dipped or sprayed gold and when dry, the wave and water colours were added on top of the gold base coat.

Now, another point of interest is the badge that Norm shows on his web page that I believe to be of the same variant has the gap between the eagle's head and the wings cut out whereas this example doesn't. I have attached an image of that badge copied from Norm's site so all data and photo credit to him and hoping he will see this thread and add his thoughts.

[Norm F]

Hi Adrian,

Great badge! Yes, for some reason, both M3.1.7 (without the vertical flaw) and M3.1.8 (with the vertical flaw) can be found with or with the cutouts around the eagle's head. It seemed too complicated to create additional classification numbers to subdivide these, as there are already 10 variants of RK in the table as it is! Aside from that one area, the trimming outlines seem otherwise identical on the two subtypes. I can imagine three possible explanations - 1) two different trimming stamps (one with the cutout around the head and one without or 2) there was a separate small stamping tool for just this area whose use was skipped on some badges or 3) there was a single trimming stamp which developed a flaw in the head area over time resulting in the two trimming subvariants.

This gets very complicated but consider two scenarios:

Scenario 1 is if M3.1.8 uses the same reverse die as M3.1.7, which developed the vertical flaw over time. In this case, because the two subtypes of trimming occur BOTH in the M3.1.7 and in M3.1.8, it could not have been simply a flaw developing over time in a single trimming stamp. Rather there would have to be two separate trimming stamps and/or a separate tool for trimming around the head.

Scenario 2 is if M3.1.8 and M3.1.7 were produced on separate tool sets in simultaneous use. In that case, a single trimming die could have developed a flaw around the eagle's head sometime during the production of both M3.1.7 and M3.1.8 resulting in the two subtypes of the eagle's head trimming.

There doesn't seem to be this trimming variability on the other RK variants. It's quite possible that the myriad of RK maker mark variations reflects a consortium of production sites for the "R.K." marked badges (as opposed to a single maker in Rudolf Karneth) and that only one of those production sites had this trimming issue.

We may never know for sure.

Best regards,
---Norm