One of my Max show 2013 pick ups - Tiger slant with the initial large Tiger maker mark everyone loves. Dagger is in fantastic condition with a large amount of lacquer present rare to see on a dagger of this vintage. Scabbard is one of those early bulbous types hard to explain they just have a unique shaped shell. The crossguard is an early generic type-3 certainly one of the hardest crossguards to find I have only seen a few of these over the years and one that was missing from my collection so I was very surprised and happy to pick up this dagger. This crossguard has previously been attributed to Horster but in my opinion it is an early generic variety. In my opinion three different unique types of these early generic crossguards exist. These early generic crossguards were used on initial production examples by smaller producers who did not make their own fittings in house such as - Voos - Plumacher - Tiger - WMW - Puma – Carl Wusthof – Axt - as a partial list. Most collectors are familiar with the generic A & B crossguards which appeared later in the period and used by the smaller producers. Unlike the later generic A & B these early generic crossguards type-1 type-2 type-3 are some of the most desirable and difficult crossguards to obtain for the army collector. These statements are based solely on my observations and merely my opinion so I welcome any dialog regarding these crossguards.

I remember this one,that's a very nice dagger,congrats.

Regards
Stingray

This dagger is a real "sleeper" Tom! Remember seeing this one with you and it's easy to think, ok, Pack first guard, been polished some...Wrong! This is a very destinctive guard indeed, broad chest, big head with typically poor definition..really cool and Super rare! The lacquer is so smooth on the fittings it looks like cleaned silver, wrong again! For a initial production piece like this to retain large swaths of protective lacquer is quite amazing.. Rarity and condition..killer combo! Congrats Tom.. Kevin.

Kevin nailed that one straight.

Nice score Tom. I always liked these Big Tigers.

Congrats, Tom, on another killer find.

I missed out on a great show, I guess.

John

I saw this one whilst at the show, bit of a late night show and tell really, was mightily impressed with it then and even more so now, a beautiful early dagger in stupendous condition,the pictures aint half bad either.

Gary

Thanks Guys !

I had a few questions regarding the early generic crossguards so here they are.

Thanks for the great pics and easily applied terminology for these rare guards Tom, I have two guards to obtain!! Kevin.