A VERY GOOD EXAMPLE OF A TRANSITIONAL ‘33 SS DAGGER DOUBLE MARKED - BY EICKHORN

Eickhorn arguably made some of the best edged weapons, and probably were the most prolific in the business. SS and SA daggers all started being produced in 1933. They are made of high quality materials, nickel, ebony wood etc etc. They were also made by a huge variety of different makers. Some very small cottage ones and the huge companies like Eickhorn. As the time progresses more state control was introduced mainly in the form of the RZM, who aimed to streamline production across the board. As this happened, manufacturers had to give up their individual trademarks and were forced to just use their allowed RZM codes and production numbers. Therefore there was a period, perhaps a couple of years, when ‘old’ parts were used up and you had the situation where trademarks and RZM numbers/codes, existed side by side.
The collecting community have named these pieces ‘Transitional’ for obvious reasons.
This very nice SS mans dagger is exactly one of these examples. This one would only have been worn by enlisted men and NCO’s as the Officers chained dagger was introduced in 1936, and this one is dated 1938! However, in addition to the twin marks on the blade, it exhibits several transitional parts. Nickel grip eagle, probably nickel crossguards and nickel scabbard fittings.Has not been cleaned in a very long time so the fittings have a ‘yellow’ patina to them. Ebony grip is super with no damage or cracks apart from some slight age bumps etc. scabbard is very sound and again no damage or dents. There is its original short black hanger with snap clip. This is marked RZM M5/93.
The blade in just short of mint as there are a couple of very minor okd finger smudges. Very feint. All the original crossgrain polish is present and the SS motto letters have all the grey backgrounds! The reverse riccasso has a beautiful clear etched Eickhorn squirrel and above it is the RZM circle with 941/38 below. A similar dagger with this mark can be seen in Tom Wittmanns SS book.

“The sale of Knives and other Edged Weapons are restricted to those aged over 18. Verification of age is required before purchase is concluded.”

Code: 4948