Never having seen one before after collecting this stuff for nearly 50 years, I was starting to think that these are really something special. Then the first few numbers on them that I saw were under 200 adding to the whole rare thing in my mind. Then I saw one with a serial number of nearly 500 with an "A" attached. Now you tell me that there were several makers. Well, now I am wondering why I haven't seen any of these before? Of course there are fakes. They fake this stuff like crazy. Both the source and the condition lead me to believe that this one is real. What I am really wondering though is why this one only has the distributor marking and nothing else? It seems that all of the others have the "H" on the spine, "Ch.A.W." and some number that mine does not. Didn't Goering run the Forestry organization along with the Luftwaffe? Maybe there is a connection there? Like Himmler running both the SS and the Police and transferring guys back and forth between them. Doug
'German Military Fighting Knives 1914-1945'
Lists one description as:
Waffen -Loesche Berlin on one side and Ch.A.W. on the other.
And, that they are seen made by several makers marks to include Eickhorn and WKC.
It mentions reproduction proofmarks as being poorly struck and/or too light, and/or uneven.
