WW1 German Trench/Boot knife- Is it Genuine or a Fake

[browningautorifle]

I paid around £70 to £80 for it

What do you think about the price I paid

http://www.stewartsmilitaryantiques....itary-antiques

Seems like you paid same as for a real one.

[Flying10uk]

Thanks Jim. Never mind, sometimes you have to take a gamble with these things.

[Flying10uk]

Here is the WW2 German Boot knife which I mentioned in Post 7. The dealer wasn't too sure himself about these knives and he was very fair about them in that he advertised them as repro and priced them accordingly.

[Aragorn243]

That looks good to me but I'm not expert on knives.

[Flying10uk]

My theory was that the patina of the knife in post 13 would be very difficult to fake and the absence of any Waffenampt marks could be explained by it being a late war example.

[browningautorifle]

That one looks correct, that's the simple difference between it and the one that was claimed to be first war...easy to see.

[Flying10uk]

Ok thanks Jim. The other one, the WW1 knife was from a genuine chap, selling in good faith, who must have been nearly 80 and just downsizing his collection I expect.

[tankhunter]

The Design of this Fighting knife, is MUCH more superior. To it's later successor, the Bundeswher 'Fighting' (I use the word advisedly!) Knife!
I have a post-war Bundy 'Fighting' Knife in my own collection. It is very surprising to learn, that they were not much use as such! The ergonomic design of the handle was uncomfortable & the grip scales were fragile (Apparently from what I have been told by Service users in the BW) & worst of all, the blade edge dulled VERY quickly in service use! NOT what you would expect from a German engineered item at all!!.....

They ARE however, popular with collectors though. So much so, that they are being reproduced. Some copies better than others!.......As are the Wartime German Kampfmesser's!......

[browningautorifle]

Bundy 'Fighting' Knife

We had scads of these salted through the units. As stated, they were more like a tourist item than usable knife. The blade was too soft to retain it's edge...but they looked very cool... I had forgotten about those. After about 1980 we stopped seeing them around Canadian units.