This is a thread I've wanted to start for a long time now but never got around to it. Last night while enjoying some insomnia, I thought about finally getting down to brass tacks as it were. I've long had a love affair with the Fire Official's dagger & have collected them for over 10 years. Please feel free to post your own examples as I hope this thread to be not only a treat for the eyes but an education for some of the newer collectors considering such daggers for their collection.
One reason I've found them fascinating is the longevity of this specific dagger's form. With the exception of the German Naval dagger, I would say the German Fire Official's dagger has to be the longest, consistently used German sidearm. According to Tom Wittmann & Tom Johnson's fine tome "Collecting the Edged Weapons of Imperial Germany, Volume 1", the Royal Preussen Fire Department introduced edged weapons for wear around 1850 which is quite some time ago. There is a general assumption that officials from the other states authorized the practice in their respective departments subsequently.
Another interesting fact about the Fire Official's dagger, during the NS zeit, it was one of the few dagger types that did not incorporate a swaz in any part of the daggers produced during that era. We also know that Eickhorn produced this model dagger until the firm closed it's doors in the 1970's which is one of the reasons these daggers, at least those produced by Eickhorn, can be somewhat problematic when attempting to determine whether a dagger was produced pre 1945 or post 1945. But I'll get to that in a later post.
Most often seen are the Fire Official's daggers from the Imperial & Weimar era. Many such daggers were produced in this time period & were carried by career fire officers during their entire tenure which often stretched into the 3R. This was possible since the actual form of the dagger changed little. One thing that did seem to change between the Imperial period & the 3R was the length of the dagger blades. It seems the lengthy dagger blades were somewhat awkward which made them unpopular with officers so as time went on, blade lengths got shorter. When you hold one of these long daggers in hand, you come to the realization that a shorter blade made things a whole lot better.
Most Fire Official's daggers were produced by the two big boys on the dagger block, Eickhorn & WK&C, soon to become WKC. Besides differences in blade etches, each producer had a somewhat different hilt configuration which was synonymous with them. Eickhorn's pommel resembled a doorknob, for lack of a better term & the quillion arm ends resembled cloverleaves. WKC was more known for it's "flaming pommel" which was also used on Naval daggers of the same period. The ends of WKC's quillion arms resembled spear points.
This dagger was my first Fire Official's dagger & I suppose it's fitting that it's one of the more recognizable models. This fine dagger was produced by Eickhorn & was assigned model # 42 in the 1908 Eickhorn sales catalogue. As you can see, it's hilt is classic Eickhorn. I passed by many examples before this one quite literally fell into my lap courtesy of the BCN's Jack Schraeder & I am most grateful for that. The condition is just super & as you can see, this dagger was not overpolished by it's original owner or the vet who brought it back to the US. The hilt retains much of it's original lacquer. The blade alone is an astounding 19" in length which makes for an unwieldy piece considering that the hanger loops are so close together.
