UBB.threads Forums Edged Weapons SA & NSKK Dagger Forum late Xmas present : CHAINED NSKK EICKHORN lucky find

Hi,
I spent my new years eve (well not really it was 6pm)driving to go get me a chained NSKK dagger.
It comes with a nice story aswell.(but i tell that one later).
I'm in a hurry now, but i will post some pictures for now and will add more later
Dagger has some wear but is 100% original, number matching item. It has CAH on the tang and has the eickhorn RZM code. Also chain has matching numbers , both stamps and soldered rings.
One funny thing one stamp is on the clip side the other one (NSKK stamp) in on the scabbard side. And all rings seems to be still originally sealed (solder). So production mistake or a later fix??

cheers

Happy New Year

forgot to say; the fittings are very nice aswell (scabbard to dagger is perfect!
only minor gap between grip and crosguards (aging)

great motto + crossgraining left + some slight pitting but I will leave it untouched

pic 3

pic 4

pic 5

pic 6

pic 7

pic 8

pic 9

pic 10

pic 11

pic 12

pic 13
some wear on the scabbard

I will post the story later today or tomorrow.
I have to go now (new years day dinner at my parents place.)

PS: Dagger is for sale!

all pics I took are on a dutch picture hosting website , i pass you the link but i'm not sure it will work.

http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Album=RP8D3ZF8

other link to the big sized picture (but does not contain all pics taken (too little space).

http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Album=8IZNDDSS

Hi Joe:

I am no expert on these, but I would invite you to read this old thread on how to differenciate good and bad NSKK chain assemblies.

Comparative pics

Stephan, thanks for the reply.
I did check out the forum before the buy and mine looks like the one on the left (the good one).
There is one other forum link, where they mention four things to look for.
1. both stamps (most common both on the side of the clip, but I have seen other for sale , wih stamps on the side of scabbard, as said I have not seen any with the stamps at different sides).
2. soldering on the rings
3. "D" styled holes.
4. spacing on the center ring / connection at scabbard.
All 4 are ok !
Plus the dagger is 100% real and fits perfect into the scabbard.
If I was not for 100% sure then I would not have bought this dagger. Also the story (history) explains a lot. See next post.
Only thing that is not so clear on my pictures are the "D" style holes. But in real they have the flat base,the appear more rounded but that due to wear and age coloring.

this picture below shows what I mean, the left has a nice "D" shaped hole, the right ONE gives the impression to be a round hole (due to wear/dirt) but it is a "D" aswell.

other pic of a nice "D" shaped hole.

Joe, Very nice 100% correct chain! JMO

Hi Joe,

Yes, from your earlier pictures I thought that your chain had round holes rather than arched ones. That is why I pointed you to that url. Glad to see you have done your homeworks before buying. These daggers can be tricky.

Stephane

the promised story:
1. how did I find it ?
Mine was just a lucky find, from time to time I search the local free (auction / second handed) websites . I noticed this add (in flemish) for a german SA dagger with hanger /chain, with just one not so clear picture (common isn't ?), the difference in color between grip and scabbard was even hard to tell.
The add also had a short description, including the sentence "bouwjaar 1939" (free translation: building date 1939), something you would use for a car but not for a dagger. This sentence stuck to me. Or this was a joker or this guy had no idea at all.
So I mailed the seller for extra pictures and asked him if this chain was the correct type (if it was stamped, since it looked odd to me).
He replied: "this is a correct chain but it is a NSKK dagger".
I got some extra pics (size between 28-56kb, so real small ones) but good enough to see some details of the stamps, "d" styled holes, the CAH stamp on the tang.
So I called him and asked him for the RZM markings (M5/8 + M7/66 )and how he aquired the dagger. He gave me very plausible story.(see below)
So I decided to pay him a visit and you all know how this ended.

2. How did he (the seller) get the dagger?
This is the story how it was told to me.
The seller(Pierre) is an older(retired)men and hunter. He collects hunting rifles. Just recently a new law has been voted in Belgium, making a lot of rifles (even hunting rifles) illegal.
All owners most declare the weapon and get a weapon permit (through a shooting club) or trade-in the weapon at the local police station.
A friend of Pierre had a few guns (hunting rifle winchester, a Mauser and the NSKK dagger), he got afraid , and decided to get rid of the weapons. He started destroying the weapons, the mauser was allready sawed in pieces and thrown away before Pierre could talk him out of destroying the weapons and selling him the hunting riffle. The dagger came with the gun (if i did understand Pierre correctly, as a gift, glad to be rid of the weapons). Pierre not really intrested in the dagger,decided to sell.
3.How did the friend of Pierre got the dagger?
His father was requisitioned as a truck driver for the germans. He helped (forced?) the germans to transport stuff between Lille, France (mine-industry) and Kortijk, Flanders (Tabac industry). He became good friends with a german officier.
Almost at the end of the war, this german officer decided to desert and changed his uniform + dagger for food and civilian clothing.
The dad decided to burry the clothing , but founded the dagger to nice to burry. So they hide it inside a closet (false bottom).
It seems that they even had the name and adress of the german officer, and that they tried a few times to contact the officer after the war. But without succes. The son inherit the dagger when his dad died. And recently gave(sold?) it to Pierre.

I did ask Pierre if he could find out the name and adress of the officer.
He will ask his friend, but could not promise me anything, because his friend is not too keen to talk about this period of their life. The family is still ashamed that they worked (collaborated) for the germans.

Maybe another bull**** story to get the dagger sold, but if I told Pierre what the NSKK stands for, he was very surprised, since he was not aware what it meant.

Correct Stephen,
from the back , the holes appear more rounded, but as you can see on the other pictures they have the flat base.

another pic of the RZM chain stamp

Also the chain attracts to a magnet. So it is (gilded) steel, as it should be.

Yes I see now. Thanks, great find and great story.