UBB.threads Forums Edged Weapons Army, Navy, and Luftwaffe Forum Dagger question

Hello ,I was recently offered an Army Alcoso dagger which was nice ,but it had been taken appart by the dealer /collector or whoever in the past and so to my mind had been fiddled with and therefore was of a lesser value than a virgin dagger .So is a dagger that has been stripped and put back together worth less than an unfiddled with dagger or is it not such a big issue with daggers .Thanking you in advance Rob.

As long as no parts were swapped or damaged, It doesn't affect the value. Stripped threads, glued on pommels, and nicked up screws would however

As I understand, taking appart a dagger is only way to examine it's interior characteristics and thus dertermine the daggers authenticity. Without dismantling an army dagger for example there is no way to inspect the billet clamp mark, interior of the grip, etc. In my experience it is a necessary part of authentification and absolutely does NOT cause ANY decrease in the daggers value (as long as no damage was done in the process ofcourse). There are of course exceptions such as RAD hewers and red cross daggers which are more difficult to take appart and lack any necessity in most cases to do so (anything with screws I don't mess with). In my opinion it is VERY smart to dismantle an army for inspection before buying (if possible) as long as you know what to look for, and it will NOT effect the value.

Not to me. Sometimes one MUST take 'em down or face an expensive lesson in buying a parted out dagger. When necessary, do it within the inspection period to find "problems".

AND who knows how many times a dagger has been taken down by previous owners? So the takedown doesn't generally affect value unless you run into things like those Vern mentions...
Denny

Thankyou for the responses guys .I have a few daggers allready but I havent taken them appart as I usually do more damage than good .I have decided to buy the dagger and will post pics when it arrives ,thanks again Rob.

In most cases you would never be able to tell it was apart. A would think big percentage of GI's took them apart and bet a lot of Germans did it for cleaning.