Dedicated 1936 SS Dagger service number 183329

Dedicated SS daggers are very rare to say the least, I had an opportunity to purchase this from someone who was offered this dedicated 36 but it was in a very sorry way. Now some people would debate restoring a dedicated piece like this, but in this condition it was a preservation excersise to save the integrity and honesty of the piece moving forward. If the finder in Germany would have left it all alone it might have been a harder desision to make, but the botched attempt at tidying it up left no option but to start a thourogh restoration from scratch. Thankfully all the fittings had been left in their original codition so we can get a clear idea on the originality and provinence of the piece.

After 60 years swealtering in someones attick the handle had massively shrunk and twisted with the intense variations of temperature and the scabbard had become pitted all over. After it was rediscovered it appears that the someone forced the scabbard fittings off damaging all three of them in the process. They then very crudely filled the pitting and painted it extremely poorly before putting them back. The handle was crudely re shaped beyond anything that resembled the original. It then recieved a thick coate of the black paint over the wood, runes, and eagle.

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Sorry above pic is part way through restoration

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On my first inspection of this dagger it struck me that it was potentially an important and traceable piece. The blade was heavily oiled and had remained in almost mint condition, the dedication was deep as well as the original owners serial number in the reverse of the cross guard.

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Materials and fittings

There have been a range of materials used in the original construction of this dagger

Upper and lower scabbard fittings were made of Nickle silver
Centre scabbard ramp was made of solid brass
Main chain links all made of nickle silver
Connecting chain links mainly nickle silver with one being steel
Cloverleaf was made of steel
All handle fittings were Nickle silver

Period repairs

It is evident that this dagger had a number of period repairs, firstly at least one connecting link had been replaced with a steel one, and it is possible that one or two of the other connecting links might have been replaced. The upper scabbard chain mounting point had been replaced with a steel replacement that had almost completely coroded since it was repaired. It is possible that the cloverleaf was also replaced being made of steel but I am almost certain that it just happened to be used with the mainly nickle silver fittings.

55 here you can see the beautiful blade, later you can see the amount of oil and grease used in the scabbard and on the runners

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Dagger Repair


The first thing that I have done is remove the cross guards and start to polish them, despite being Nickle silver they took several hours to clean by hand. The patina and build up of dirt and grease was particularly stubborn to remove, it has started to deteriorate the surface of the nickle silver so the timing of the cleaning and restoration is spot on before the piece gets severely damaged by pitting. The serial number 183329 on the rear of the lower cross guard seems to be filled with the same thick matter that I have been able to remove from the surfaces. I will need to get this proffesionally cleaned out as to keep the integrity of the inscribed number. Both the crossguards have the same markings A.E and I have left them un cleaned inside.

I carefully removed the SS runes and Eagle from the handle with a very sharp angled implement to get them out without damaging them. It took several hours to clean them using Autosol rubbing them on a cloth until all traces of the black paint had been removed. I had to use a scalpal to scrape the black paint out of the eagles wings that was stubbornly lodged there. I was very pleased with the finished articles and left the reverse of the items un cleaned to be re inserted into the handle. The handle itself was completely rotten under the thick paint, I suspect it had secome to woodworm while it had been stored for all those years.

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115 here you can see when I stripped the scabbard back, it took hours to get the filler done correctly (I used to work in a car bodyshop) this was one of the first coats.

117 After fully accesing the extent of the damage it was clear even with extensive filling and treatment this handle was beyond any hope of repair. It was not however made of Ebony, it appeared to be a lighter wood that had been stained originally. I used a period SA handle of a similar wood colour for the basis of the new handle. It had a chip out of the top right hand corner and was a poor fit on both sets of cross guards. I painstakingly filled it several times to make a snug fit and softened all the edges of the wood a little to give it that rounded SS handle feel. I used four coates of ebony dye to give it the colour being carful each coat to apply it without brush marks by rubbing it in thourahly using one of my fingers. Once dried I re inserted the original Runes and eagle then used a scouring pad to give it an aged feel. I then attached the crossguards and inserted the blade again that has a number 5 on the tang.

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120 to get a really snug fit on the crossguards I had to fill a lot of the SA grip using car body filler. You can see it starting to take shape here.

122 grip after six coats of ebony stain note the runes and eagle put back snugly. After another few weeks I took the edge of the shine using a scotch brite to give it that old worn look and feel.