Here is my latest addition to my Heer collection. Forth and final design by Eickhorn. This dagger has little finish left on the fittings however the base metal is in good shape and has turned almost black with age. The scabbard is in good condition having the flat scabbard bands, and the blade on this dagger is almost flawless retaining all of it's original crossgraining. I just did a quick search through the big dealer sites and can't seem to find another Army Eickhorn with a white handle. Is this an oddball Eick or do you think the handle was changed?

Thanks
Rich

Rich, That is a very nice Army dagger with an exceptional blade for which I can offer a couple of observations. The first is that rather than having lost most of its finish it appears that much of it may be �toning�. With the second being that the grip seems to be a solid grip which may have been made using a urea or melamine formaldehyde type plastic, Both of which were period made by I.G. Farbenindustrie the maker of �Trolon� - an earlier plastic resin with some problems. Regards, Fred

PS: And we might not want to forget this one: �Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.� RAH

Rich,
You can never be 100% certain if a grip was switched or not. I've never seen a white gripped Eick either but that doesn't mean they never used white grips. I think it's a beautiful dagger with a lovely patina and crossgrain.

Danny

My late Eick had a white grip and still had very thin silver plate/lacquer over potmetal base. The final Eick Heer typically had the stamped over-the-shoulder trademark frequently seen on late Navy daggers. The last stamped trademark is the most difficult Eick to find IMO.

Red

Eickhorn and Pack pretty much started the dagger production race, so nothing surprises me anymore when rarities surface. I agree with Frog Prinz with the observation of the early trolon type grip. The crossgraning on the blade is breathless! Larry

A collector friend of mine does own an EICKHORN with the same kind of white grip. Due to the condition of the whole dagger shown here and due to the condition of it�s grip and due to the mentioned twin I would tend to think that EICKHORN did a small number of their army daggers with these white grips.
Btw, here is another EICKHORN with a white grip but ......

Regards,

Wow! What a beautiful ivory gripped Eickhorn. And without cracks from what I can see. Very very nice Wotan.

Danny

Rich nice example with a beautiful blade - yes Eickhorn army daggers with white grips are not the norm. I agree with the Red Baron the late over the shoulder mark is quite difficult to locate on an army

Rich,

Not commonly seen is right ... if that's the original factory grip it certainly would be out of the ordinary, no doubt. I can't recall seeing another like it and it would be interesting to see other similar examples for comparison. As for the condition of the dagger, I think we can all agree that this is a honey!

Maybe John Z. can help us? I know he has a fair share of Eickhorn examples.

Wotan - it seems your friends grip has some funny surface-marks running through it, you can tell him a new coat of fresh white paint would definitely 'spruce things up' a little bit.

Here's another Eickhorn with those strange marks on the grip.

Best regards!

Bill

Bill
I remember when this dagger turned up all those years ago.

Gary

Some very nice daggers. Here is a (non-Ivory ) solid white grip that was reported to be on a H�ller. Having seen other examples here and there of comparable grips that were colorfast which is something that the unstable cast phenolic resins (ie: Trolon and its close relatives) were not capable of - which was well known at the time. And just like every other maker in Solingen, Eickhorn did not make them, because they were not in the chemical business but had to be out sourced. With as time went on a shift to alternate materials for the later period daggers.

And from what I remember 10 or 12 years ago, there was a sort of temporary insanity which afflicted a segment of the collecting community in the search for deeply colored grips. With some dealers and collectors offering supposed �special order General Officer�s� daggers. Buying, selling, collecting, and trading with collective gasps of 'oos and ahss' as each brightly colored example was trotted out to be admired. (White was NOT on the most sought after list.)

With my point really being that with all the mixing of genetic material like grips that went on. I think that an alternate material such as we see here might make more sense for a later dagger - unless of course it can be shown that Eickhorn had acquired large enough reserves to carry them through. FP

Thank you all for the kind words, and some incite on these white handled oddball Eicks. A strange combination for sure.

Bill and Wotan, stunning daggers, thanks for sharing. I haven't come across an ivory or glass grip yet but the day will come.

Rich