UBB.threads Forums Edged Weapons Miscellaneous Dagger Forum NPEA Leader's Dagger ?

I acquired this dagger with a couple of other items from the purported estate of a recently deceased US Army veteran. I've been told the "Sch" marking refers to the Napola school at Schulpforta. Daggers aren't my bailiwick so I'm posting these pics in hope of determining the piece's authenticity. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Len

more pics...

Need to see photos of the blade tang and inside the crossguards. A little rough around the edges but appears genuine. A school marked leaders dagger is quite valuable.

I was afraid of that.Unfortunately I don't have the wrench for taking apart this type of dagger. If someone can provide the metric size I might be able to mill down a standard wrench.Even then I'm loathe to try and take her apart , with my luck something will break.

A Dremel tool chuck wrench will work, or cut a notch in 1/16 thick sheet steel. The more I look at it, the better I like it. Hope to see comments by Ron & John.

DONS,
Thanks for the dremel wrench idea. Here are pics of what I found.

EW crossguards and the lack of a tang mark are good signs of originality. Looks like the real deal.

Hi Les,
Congrats! Looks like a good one. I have NPEA leader daggers Sch.111 and Sch.115. Sch.111 has nickel cross guards, and 115 they become plated. So, somewhere between 111 and 115 they switched to plated cross guards(see pics) The plating on mine is chipping as well. Ron Weinand sold leader Sch.188 and the stamping moved to the center of the cross guard. This kind of info is valuable. Broad value range on yours is 5-10K, as they don't come up for sale often. Best, John

Looks promissing to me. The spidering on the scabbard is a good sign and the construction is as it should be.

Thanks for your help & input on this dagger fellas. It's greatly appreciated!

Len

the motto on the blade is not in the center of the blade, why? on a ss dagger its a no good sign:-)

/fredrik

I think that is an optical illusion, as the dagger is at an angle, and tilted, and the overhead light reflects on the blade at an angle. Perhaps Les can take a picture with the dagger vertical.

Fredrik's correct. The motto doesn't appear to be centered on the lateral line. So... are we back to square one and this thing's a piece of dreck?

Len

I'm not ready to condemn it on just a slightly crooked motto. The grain of the grip is a little unusual for an NPEA, more like the grain on an Eickhorn SA dagger, but I'd like to see a picture of the grip ends/tang hole opening please. Thanks, John

It may be just a human error. The templates were placed by humans those days. It wasn't computer operated laser etching. I wouldn't see it as a red flag.