Wotan IMO the brass base daggers came first-pieces that have the brass scabbard as well are the earliest and are seldom encountered most have the brass based hilt fittings with a steel based scabbard. Concerning early daggers with lightweight fittings several come to mind – Pack with their satin aluminum hilt fittings (never plated) and SMF used a lightweight base metal they silver plated IMO in an attempt to make the dagger lighter and hence more desirable in the market place. Klaas adopted a plated lightweight base metal as well my guess would be sometime in 1936 as initial production Klaas are brass based hilt fittings. Seems WKC experimented with a lightweight base metal as well what’s considered the WKC type 2 are generally found in the lightweight base metal. Of course Pack went to a lightweight base metal on their 3rd design. More times then not these plated lightweight base metal hilts show plate lifting as the base did not hold a silver plate well over time.
