Is VERY interesting how some people say this daggers are original all the way, no question "should" be made about their originality or details because some long time collectors and other not so old in the field say they are originals and have decades on the trenches of collecting third reich items.
Let me make an observation about how the amount of years of study in any field of collectables or art is not everything or proof of unquestionable opinions about originality. Take for example one of the most complicate things a human being can try to reproduce,copy or make a forgery....a painting and even more one of those of the "old masters" with all their finess and details, so realistic that looks like a picture, then we have the forgeries made some times VERY close to the time frame period of the original...AKA as OLD...and of such quality that fooled a lot of experts and collectors for years, Rembrandt comes to mind, a lot of work atributed to the great master himself, now(in recent decades) have been declared to have been made by some of his most talented protegges in his atelier, so technicaly they are "original fakes".
Is interesting because some of these collectors express their concern with some pieces of militaria at the diferent forums or militaria shows that do not conform to the traditions or details of known and VERY WELL documented originals, but when they are the ones with the never seen before item, out of the ordinary,stange markings,no real bullet proof provenance etc, all these details and faults can be forgotten OR NEED NOT TO BE DISCUSED....in fact the saying "BUY THE PIECE NOT THE STORY" comes to my mind very strongly every time I read this thread.
The denial of detailed photos of an item that have SEVERAL PROBLEMS in diferent areas of the dagger and to top that it have a price tag of an entry level Porsche rise more and more questions about why the owners of such an expensive and rare piece don't want to clear the bad reputation these daggers had from the start of their discovery. This is no small change in my humble opinion. I mean we do not have ANY detail PERIOD 1933-1945 photo of the daggers blade or construction details, we dont have ANY direct VETERAN SOLDIER,OFFICER or CIVIL ALLIED ATTACHE SERVING IN OCCUPIED EUROPE provenance for any of the pieces, just second hand provenance from family members...some of them kids or young persons that saw "for the first time" in the 1960's or 70's their fathers or grandfahter war booty with no interest on the pieces or history behind it, so no hard evidence or details can be obtain from them, I am not saying these family members are laying or making any false statement, they just are put in a spot where their recolections...what ever they are about the item are needed to keep the "discovery" momentum going for the piece. The ONLY real provenace that should be found and investigated are those by the veterans themselves, after all they are the ones who can say where and how they obtain these special items, and we know that even those have to be studied carefully to corroborate the facts.
Now, apart from the detractors of the daggers, no one have answer my observation about the irregular etching on the nametaht appear on the balde. If one of the owner of these daggers is willing to put an end at least in this area of the signature execution, they could take the blade to an laboratory with an nice micro camera scan, we could see once and for all if the signatures are etched or machine done....to me it looks machine done all the way, even in the poor photos of the blades that show this area. Etching is a chemical prosses and use no mechanical "tool" to make the impression, this is why is used by craftmans to do delicate work on metals, until recently it was the "cleanest" prosses to make an artistic impresion on metal, now lasers guided by computers can do almost anything in any type of shape or form....ask gun makers and engravers who now can offer pieces at a more affordable price using the laser option....of course if you still want to have the magnificent "old world" crafmanship of hand engraving you will have to pay dearly for it since they are truly handmade works of art and perfection without equal, which brings us to the signature "crude" detail and execution if was made by hand or machine assisted engraver master craftman at the time.
