It�s a little more complicated than just a focus on the center mount - although that component does (IMO) have one significantly crucial aspect.
As originally described:
�For those of you not familiar with the dagger, it is a chained damascus piece that is very similar in construction to the SA Honor - with three notable differences:
1) NSKK Honor Daggers have a smooth-grain black leather colored scabbard.
2) NSKK Honor Daggers have two types of chains. Either an 800 silver chain that is unique to these pieces, or a standard-looking NSKK chain. Both chain configurations exhibit a very unique looking center scabbard fitting.
3) The reverse of the NSKK exhibits a stylized signature of Hunlein, the NSKK Korpsfuhrer.�
* Unless it has been dyed or recovered, leather covered scabbards themselves are not really an issue.
* Can the non ferrous alloys mentioned - silver or nickel silver (which is 2/3 copper) be artificially colored black? The answer is yes. (But that is not what happens with nickel silver under normal atmospheric conditions.)
* There are legitimate mixed component (metal types) period items - but the overwhelming majority seen now are postwar. Not every maker did the same thing at the same time. But I think for discussion purposes circa 1937 could be considered a crossover point for the non copper based alloys. Brass, nickel silver, malleable iron, zinc, and steel can all be electroplated in nickel, silver, or gold. As per period catalog information: nickel plating was the cheapest. Silver was cheaper than gold plating, and the most expensive was extra heavy gold plating.
* Much more important IMO than counting chain links would be to look at what the chains (and center mount) are made of. For conventional daggers nickel silver preceded nickel plated steel chain links. Silver, while it has industrial uses, was not a restricted war material like copper and could be early or late. And machinery which can stamp nickel silver can very easily stamp even the hardest silver alloy. Whereas casting is the least preferred method for silver because of problems with the metal rapidly absorbing excess oxygen - unless of course you don�t have access to a set of stamping dies and casting is your only available option.
* �Field upgrades� of conventional daggers is one thing. For a �Field upgrade� of a conventional early period Damascus SA dagger - that was not an Eickhorn factory upgraded dagger - there are a number of additional issues that have to be addressed: 1)The daggers have to be collected. 2) Go to what seems to be an amateur (or less skilled) shop to be etched individually without benefit of a master template. Cast chain links and wide connecters have to be procured from the �Gahr� company. The nickel silver chain links have to be obtained from somebody else - along with the nickel plated steel snap connector. And somebody had to manufacture the nickel silver (?) center mount. And the small contractor would have to been someone without any access to silver plating. Which in that time frame might have cost an �outrageous� 3 RM to have all the added components silver plated. Unless of course the daggers were in two grades ie: �Friends of Adolph H�hnlein� for the nickel silver/plated steel chain fittings. Or the �Really Good Friends� grade in silver.
* That the topic has at times been somewhat less than pleasant in nature goes without saying. But frauds have been perpetrated upon the collecting community at least from the 1950�s. And some information which has been accepted as fact (because it appeared in books on the subject) is now known to have no factual basis - and were �Best Guesses� from early writers and collectors. Now is the time to set the record straight - because in another 20 or 30 years it will be virtually impossible to do so - given the inevitable loss of institutional knowledge.
* There is �quality� and the is �Quality�. These daggers were reported circa 1965? 40 years ago �beater� 98K bayonets began to have fake etching added to enhance value of otherwise unmarketable bayonets. Large numbers of daggers were made from parts and sold in quantity and all sorts of other things happened. While the dagger that started this thread unquestionably (IMO) seems to have been made from parts. That does not mean that otherwise whole lesser condition daggers could not also have been used like the bayonets were. Which seems to be the case where there is a probability of the blade etching being added to an already worn blade. And 40 years ago, before the meteoric rise in prices, all sorts of parts and whole daggers were available for (at the time) fairly reasonable prices.
* The question is not - do they exist? But what do they actually look like? Are they conglomerations of mismatched parts with added signatures? Which signature is the correct one? Do they even have signatures? What were the fittings of the photo ID�d dagger made of - or were they silver plated?
Time will tell. And maybe I�ll see one at the MAX which could help change my mind. But today is not that day. FP
