Paul, you and I don't usually disagree, but the fit of the nickel crossguard in early daggers was a hand fitting and adjustment process due to different tolerances of the grips, blade tangs and the scabbard throats.
I have seen hundreds of SAs where the crossguard just cannot even be run down the tang to the blade.
In no way do these early nickel guards match the tolerances of the later, plated guards. When you compare manufactures, you can readily see the differences and even in the same manufacturer from lot to lot.
Also, MOST of the large manufacturers used different crossguard suppliers from time to time.
Joe Pankowski studied SA Daggers by manufacturer and listed the different crossguard markings from the thousands of original daggers that have passed through his hands over the 50 years he has been collecting and dealing and it was an eye opening wealth of information.
I used much of his research in my latest work on NPEA Daggers. In "Waffenleite Presenting NPEA Daggers of the Third Reich" I was able to determine who made the daggers for Burgsmuller (contractor) based on the markings on the tangs and scabbard parts and CROSSGUARDS that were directly attributable to manufacturers (some times only one manufacturer used only a marking that directly identified them).
So, was there a generic company crossguard: NO. So were they interchangeable easily: NO.
IF you study the different manufacturers carefully by each different dagger model, you can determine much unique information.
The only drawback is that most collectors and dealers will NEVER come in contact with enough examples from direct sources to be sure to make a valid conclusion as to who did what.
IT is dealers like Joe who elected to share his valuable information with me that made my research and conclusions possible.
IT AIN'T EASY.
JMO,
Ron Weinand
