Hi All
Heres a well overdue Andys Rubbish and Ramblings for you, I apologise for my absence, Its miserably cold here at present in the midst of our New Zealand winter and we have all had a dose of the flu which has been a real drag to say the least. I need to dig deep and somehow re motivate myself.
The item Im looking at today is something I picked up many years ago from one of the first ”real” milietaria auctions I attended aged about 16 years old, that auction was a real eye opener for me, remembering this was pre internet days when we found items through swapping and trading with collectors in our area, gun shows and physical attendance at auctions. Often we had older collectors mentoring us new to the scene which helped a lot. The new collectors in the digital age don’t know how fortunate they are to have the ability to get on line and track down items almost instantly that were for many seemingly elusive a couple of generations ago. The access to information and advice is also seemingly so much easier. As much as I dislike being instantly accessible with mobile phone technology (silent mode and caller ID is a godsend), and I have to admit when I have me time I like to put the phone aside and just enjoy what Im doing, they are quite an essential tool in this day and age. Anyway, I digress..
This nice Imperial German Nahkampfmesser or close combat knife did come up in the auction I mentioned above, I successfully bid on the knife and secured it for as I recall $50, which was about the going rate at the time.
It is a well made but obviously utilitarian item with slab type 9 grove wooden grips attached with three steel rivets. The blade is around 6” or 150mm in length and if it came down to it and the knife was called onto be used as a weapon, Im sure it would do the job required effortlessly.
The black painted scabbard which retains a reasonable amount of its original black paint has an internal flat spring to retain the knife when sheathed. The seemingly fragile leather hanger strap has been lost to time. The blade is in a nice clean condition and is devoid of any markings and seems to be missing the leather washer that many of these knives have below the cross guard.
I have seen many of these knives over the years, they loosely follow a similar style and can be maker marked and proof marked or like this example unmarked.
I believe there were also private purchase examples available so expect that the variations in style and quality could be endless if one was to focus on such knives as a collector or sub collection. So far I have been content with just the one.
These items would have been very common in the First World War, in fact fighting / utility knives would have been an essential and sought after tool by all combatants and the extremes that were taken to arm soldiers with such implements can be seen when you look at the likes of the no frills expedient type “French Nail” daggers that were produced. The Nahkampfmesser would have been a handy tool for daily chores, and in reality use in the desperate trench raiding/hand to hand close combat would be an absolute nightmare I wouldn’t wish on anyone, it was however a very real prospect for many of those young men that gave their all fighting under their respective flags.
Where this knife came from is anyones guess, given the time and the source I obtained it from, there is every possibility it was a kiwi bring back, and why not, at the time it would have been a very handy knife for a man to have on hand or maybe given the condition it was kept simply as a souvenir. We will never know, Lest We Forget.