Would be interested in learning which of the early SAs was of the highest quality in the opinion of the forum members. Personally I have recently run into several "Dick" manufactured ones that seemed to ooze quality.
Some others that come to mind: Shul daggers, Henckels, Aesculap, Malsh & Ambronn.
LOL...good thing he dated the note April 13th 1990
@ Mr Mike...most early producers...mainly a few large and love the cottage makers.
Thank you SIEGFRIED - I always value your opinion and I love your pictures
To answer your question, most early SA daggers are of high quality. I have seen very few with sloppy fits and those could be due to grip shrinkage. I do like the Suhl produced daggers. I can usually identify them by grip alone. Kober and Haenel are very similar but the Sauer daggers have different characteristics.
I also like the recessed space in the lower crossguards for the blade shoulders to fit into nicely..not all producers practiced this fitting...and again also...I have seen many motto font types compared to the Motto font types of the Late RZM makers. Im not talking about the Christmas etches we see.....but the "Minority" of producers..if one looks close enough..there are some characteristics of change of the Gothic type used. IMO I consider that..a quality trait.
I think most of the early daggers show more quality and craftsmanship than the RZM ones. However there are some very nice RZM daggers out there that still show lots of quality and craftsmanship. For example I like the Eickhorn RZM daggers as they still show the quality of that maker.