I have a couple of comments to make here, as I had received several private e-mails about this Dutch HJ item, so I may as well tell everybody.

The original knives are extremely scarce. I have only ever owned one example, and I have seen and examined about six of them.

I remember seeing the copy examples come onto the market here in the UK in the 1970s. The dealer marketing them had a reputation for offering high-end questionable pieces - and on the occasion I first saw the pieces he had about four of them on his table.

The first feature which struck me was the colouring of the enamel badge in the grip. The blue sky background behind the seagull seemed to be much too light in colour. My example, and the few others that I had seen, had a much darker and richer hue of blue.

The second feature related to the form of font on the etched motto. On these copy items the motto was much crisper, and neater, than on the originals, and the shaping of the serifs appeared to be different. I showed a copy of this to a colleague - who had formerly worked as a type designer for Letraset United Kingdom, and he said that he believed he knew what the type font was, and that he would check up on it for me.

The subsequent information was that he had identified the type font, and that it was German, it was known by name as "Melior", and that it had been registered as a copyright design typeface in - 1953 !

If this is correct, then this legend in this form, cannot possibly be correct on a pre-1945 knife. I already had my doubts about this knife due to the colour of the badge in the grip. This information about the blade etching convinced me.

FJS