Joe, I remember the discussion and it was on a forum not yet mentioned here. From what I seemed to be finding through experimentation by using a grayscale conversion, it wasn�t steel versus brass. But brass versus aluminum. Wondering if perhaps the Luftwaffe was doing some experimentation - as seen with a quite a few other items during the time of the Third Reich?
Attached is one of the machetes just posted along with some additional reference examples to give a perspective. BTW: Instead of the aluminum Luftwaffe crossguard I used last time. Here I purposely used a piece of satin/brush finished aluminum sheet metal stock. To try and minimize the reflected light as much as was possible. Everyone can be their own judge as to what the images do or don�t show.
As for: �Why all the minty machetes? Perhaps the idea behind them. They were packed away in boxed kits to be used in emergencies. And there they remained.�
I�m OK with that to explain a number of different things that we see in collecting in general. But it still fails to explain I think why there are not a comparable (or maybe even greater) number of �minty� steel mounted Luftwaffe machetes in circulation as compared to the �minty� brass ones. Ordinarily you would think that the �new kids on the block� would be in better condition than the old issue items - that would or should have gone to the Russian front first. FP
