UBB.threads Forums Edged Weapons Miscellaneous Dagger Forum Diplomats Dagger ..... Opinions

Would like opinions on this piece....

If you cant afford the best, sometimes second best will have to do ...until you can.

Also would apreciate a guideline price on this.

Click on link here ...

Thanks Mark

Looks original to me. All the components are there but it looks it had been disassembled and reassembled with insufficient care and finesse. Could be restored with little effort by someone who knows what he's doing.

Forgot to ask, what is the asking price? I, personally, would not give more than oh, say, $3000 for it, mainly becasue its potential.

Manfred,

Thanks for the comments..

I saw you small but VERY impressive "Christemas decorations"

Which prompted me into go looking for one.

Guy wants a fair bit more than 3k but he's has had it a very long time, so dont think he will drop down that far. I'll see how far i can push...

Dont suppose you know someone with the skills .. "Could be restored with little effort by someone who knows what he's doing."

So i think i will pass this one and keep on looking..

It would be interesting to know if the numbers on this dagger are matching. It seems to me that someone had tried to interchange parts intemded for a different (Diplo or GO) dagger. The grip plates have to fit perfectly against the backstrap and the endplate on the side. I would guess that someone also tried to compensate for the bad fit by overtorquing the pommel nut which caused the endplate to bulge out.

I have restored a number of Diplos and GOs by various makers, and Alcoso is the most sensitive to parts replacement. On Eickhorn based GOs the grip plates are tucked under the backstrap beneath the eaglehead, while on Alcoso based GOs and Diplos the plates are butted against the metal parts. This requires an absolute perfect hand fit. This is why the numbering on Alcoso parts is important. But ultimately it is the final fit that counts.

stirnpanzer, the dagger might be period (it would need a very careful in hand inspection) but due to the early trademark the head of the eagle and how the upper edge of the wings have been filed straight the crossguard does not conform to what I have already seen on early (and even later) diplomat daggers.

Thanks for the comments.

I have decided to pass on this one....

They didnt state anything about the numbers matching. So cant answer that one.

Another one has caught my eye and you comments will be most useful..

thanks

This may helpDiplo Repo

thats a Frighteningly good reproduction...

Stir, There was an outfit out of Limeyland that use to pump out some WKC GO quite often, or at least have them for sale. I can't remember their name though. JR

JR-Did your hand ever recover from the effort in attempting to take that WKC apart? They had made sure it would never budge. Must have been marked "Made in the UK" inside.

It put a brand in my palm for a while and tweeked my took all to hell !

JR: Whenever you got a chance take a look at Johnson Vol.V, page 49. It shows a closeup of a Diplo crossguard that was once in the Vic Diehl collection. It has the indentation on the wingtips similar to the one shown in the 'repro'.

BTW: There are original GOs made by WKC. I had a chance to look at both. The repro had the well known beerbelly feature and a solid plastic grip. The WKC trademarks had some subtle but distinct differences, among other things. The hilt components of the original were of the Alcoso style also used by Hoerster, Hoeller and Puma. The fact that some repros with the WKC TM came out of the UK doesn't necessarily mean that ALL of them are no good.
The fact is that WKC purchased entire GO/Diplo daggers as well as components from other makers which were obviously intended for resale to their (WKC's) customers.

Here's a fake one for sale in a Norwegian auction, sold as "replica".

This is one of the latest repro productions by Marto. The blade is diecast and the castings are pretty rough with airbubbles on the outside. The problem is that these things can be very fotogenic and then look like hell in person. Hard to figure out why someone even bothers to crank out this kinda garbage. I can't imagine a collectors who would want one of these. Maybe they were made for skinheads.