[Michael B.]

Hello,
My brother bought this at an auction a while back, is this real or a fake? Didn't have a lot of time with the blade, rushed in, snapped some pics in about a minute then left. I could get more info though. It's about foot long with an eagle head pommel, swastika on the hilt, there is a German word on the blade, and scroll work on the sheathe, no maker's mark. I'll also have to post some much higher rez pictures. Thoughts?

[JE Sarge]

I'd say that it is an aged contemporary piece without being able to hold it. The hanging rings look suprisingly thin for the real thing. The blade shape looks a little off from my prospective as well.

Search out Arbeit Adelt dagger and take a look at the modern replicas comparing them with yours.

[Michael B.]

Thanks. Looking at the pictures online, I would have to agree that it's a reproduction. Biggest thing is that I didn't see a maker's mark on the blade, and it appears all the originals have one. Thanks for the name of the dagger though, made my search fast.

[Russ Ellis]

If I could suggest, it might be a good idea to go register over at Bladeforums (www.bladeforums.com) and go the the Bernard Levine subforum. There are guys there that can identify darned near everything, some of them have forgotten more about knives then most of us will ever know.

[Allan Senefelder]

It's meant to be a medical corpsmans dagger ( the Germans had daggers for everything in WWII) but from the pics its hard to judge the condition ( they're dark which muddles that coloration of any patination/age coloration making it difficult to tell if its artivficialy done of legitimate age). My initial guess is it new/newer and has been " antiqued" but better pictures would help.