UBB.threads Forums Edged Weapons German Sword & Miniatures Forum Wierd One- Finally Completed

Posted this also on WAF, FYI.

Bought this piece some time back- 5 or 6 years I belive. It was trashed and barely appeared barely salvageable. Kept bids down to 2 of us. It paid nearly nothing for it due to condition.

I had a poor fitting replacement grip on it in the past- about 1-2 years back bought a Klaas which was garbage, only to harvest the grip. The Klaas cost nothing, and once I harvested the grip, I sold off the rest of the hilt assembly to recoup all my $$.

Finally worked the grip by Dremmel to fit the tang, bacstrap, and P-guard. Had to unpeen then repeen the tang. Anyway, it's finally finished.

Only reason I bought this funky piece is because the strange hilt embellishments. I believe it dates to the Weimar period- possibly a bit ealier. Note the harp motiff on both the backstrap as well as the P-guard. Perhaps the officer belonged to an Army band- I have no idea. The obverse langet is also really funky.

Below is a pre-work and post-work collage.

Just thought i'd share this thing. I had posted it a couple years back when it had the ill-sized, temporary grip. The piece is now "officially" complete.

Tom

Nice job I'm not familiar with this pattern too.

Thanks Dow. I'm inclined to think it might have been a custom job. The harp pattern is very odd, and I can only imagine it was worked for an officer who was a musician. Just a guess though.

A couple pics illustrating the harp pattern- enlarged and inverted. Anyone else have any ideas regarding the harp? I'd very much like to hear 'em.

t

Good work Tom! How about the possibility it was for a singer association? I have seen banners to these groups with a harp.

Outstanding job!!

Thank you felllas.

George- that's an interesting theory and you might be on the money. Based on what was left of the original wood core grip, i am quite certain the piece originally had a sharkskin covered grip. It might very well have dated to the later Imperial era. As you guys know, finding a spare sharksking grip is literally, an impossible task. Locating a suitable celluloid grip was challenging enough, so it had to do.

What a great job! How did you manage to restore the gilting?

Thank you.

There is no gilting intact. What you are seeing is the brass hilt base. As part of the process the hilt assembly was exposed to a light amonia/water concotion. Any traces of intact gold colored gilting was long gone when I acquired this piece some years back. It was literally ready for the trash heap- if it wasn't for the odd embellishments, I never would have taken on the project. Finding the right sized and suitable piece was a challenge- in the past, I had an ill sized grip as a filler until I was able to dig up this Klaas grip and hand fit the piece to the saber.

I am quite certain the piece originally had a sharkskin grip. You can see the remains of the grips wood core with it's trashed grip wire was still present when I purchased the piece. It would have been a near impossible task to locate a suitable original period, sharkskin grip. I had to settle for the celluloid which is good enough.

With respect to the hilt embellishments, I think we all agree it's musically related. George suggested ownership by a military officer who was responsible for choir, etc. From what i've been able to find, the harp was used as one of the symbols used by such organizations. I have an email into some contemporary German singing associations to ascertain if they recognize any of the specific designs. I'll publish what I find, if anything at all.