I badly want to stay out of this, but I always have problems keeping my mouth shut. In a feeble attempt at peace-making I would like to ask why this has to be so black and white? Why does one have to be "right" and someone else "wrong". I mean let us sum up the positions here:
Jim - Has a nice condition ss dagger that the large majority of dagger hobbyists would accept in their collection as an accepted pre-1945 example based on many (but not all) attributes. This is not so bad. Will there be 100% consensus? No, because some do not like any variation. Still a valuable and saleable piece.
Dave- Says the missing word "original" and the motto spacing are variations. Well, those are facts. I don't see where he declares the dagger to be post war, just that the variations need "explanation". Maybe a better choice of words would be "we need to see more of the same variations as further evidence before they become the textbook norm". The unemotional, scientific viewpoint. Not so bad.
An ideal purpose for a discussion forum is to discuss variation and present points of view (hopefully in a civil manner). So Hey! It's the Holidays!
