Good morning.
I would like to know what do You think about this dress dagger. Somebody said that this dagger comes from Imperial Russia, but i don't know

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Hi Miphuhiz
Categorically this is not Russian dagger.This is very bad copy of Bulgarian Fire officer dagger.The grip is from the Bulgarian army dagger,crossguard is from fire officer dagger,scrabbarb looks like Labour service dagger.

Fire officer dagger

This dagger looks to be mostly a combination of a few Bulgarian WWII era pieces. The grip is definitely from a Bulgarian made dagger. It has that typical “off” color and lower quality as compared to German manufactured grips (for Bulgarian daggers) of that timeframe. The cross guard appears to be from a Bulgarian manufactured Fire Service dagger. Now the scabbard, from what I can tell from the picture, is not from a Fire Service's dagger. I believe it is from a Bulgarian WWII era Police dagger. If so, this scabbard is somewhat scarce and could be a nice find by itself. I would need a better close up shot to confirm my opinion. Also, if possible, please post a clearer close up picture of that marking on the blade.

Gary

Hi Gary,

nice to see you visiting again. Good analysis.

I have the similar scabbard on what was identified as a 1947 Bulgarian Army which was probably from a 1934 Bulgarian Police dagger.

Does that sound right Gary and Pesho?

I was wondering about the mark myself.

Jim

Hi Jim,

Yes I believe that you would be correct. I haven't visited your web site for some time however, I seem to recall a picture of a Bulgarian dagger that was listed as being a 1947 Army. If this is the one you are referring to than, yes I always believed that it was a police dagger and not an Army. I actually meant to send you a message about it but never got around to doing it. I have a Robert Klaas produced Bulgarian Police dagger that uses that exact same scabbard. The quality of this piece is first class with the fine detail (engraving?) towards the bottom of the scabbard being a pleasure to look at. Hopefully we'll get a closer look at this scabbard.

Gary

Hi Gary and Jim,
Further to my previous comments I can tell you that I'm fully agree with Gary - the grip is original Bulgarian army grip,missing the were only.As fare as I know the Fire officer dagger is produced in Bulgaria and there is not any makers mark on the blade.Regarding the scabbard - what I can see from this pore picture, yes the scabbard looks like police officer dagger.
Jim ,I have visited your web site,congratulation - very professional and useful for many people collecting edge weapons.Jim, the dagger with the black grip,which is mention like 1935 Model Royal Bulgarian Army ,looks to me like Police officer dagger.If the blade is engrave please?
Gary congratulation with all respect to your great learning regarding Pre-war Bulgarian daggers.
Gary can you shаre your Police officer dagger please?
I have one ,but in very poor condition and I'll sent some pictures late on.
Here is the scabbard only.

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pc4

Hi Pesho,

Thank you for the kind words and for sharing your knowledge and pictures of your Police dagger. As you requested, here are a few pictures of mine.

Gary

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Hi guys,
I would love to participate more on this thread but I am visiting my daughters for Easter and ha
have limited computer access.

Thank you both for mentioning the World Daggers Site. The site is really the work of Bob Rodgers as well as myself and I am actually quite embarrased over the fact I havenot participated for a few years. I have many new interesting daggers to show and Bob and I are discussing updates.

On these daggers. As soon as I get back, I will photo both the daggers in question and post them here so we can finally match up the correct scabbard.

Until then, have fun and I will see you soon.

Thank you

\Jim

Hi guys,

Garry, thank you very much to share with us your Police officer dagger.
You have to be proud with this very rare and perfect dagger. Just for your guidance from 1934 to 1944 Bulgaria had about 350-400 police officers, so I guest that not more than 400 daggers were in use. After September 1944 many of them were confiscated and destroyed .
Sorry but I can post some picture from my Police dagger earliest March 26th when I’ll be back at home.
Jim, I’m very glad that you planning to update you website and specially Bulgarian part.
If you think that I can help you with some photos from my modest collection please let me know.
Have a nice hilidays.

Jim,
I'm looking forward to seeing those pictures when you return. In the meantime, have a great holiday weekend with your family!

Pesho,
Thank you for sharing that information regarding the Police dagger. I new it was a somewhat rare dagger but I had no idea that it might be that rare! You also bring up a good point regarding dagger confiscation in post WWII Bulgaria. That fact played a very important role in me acquiring my collection of Bulgarian edge weapons. In any event, I'm really looking forward to us sharing information about our collection of Bulgarian edge weapons.

Have a great holiday weekend.

Gary

Hi guys,
Gary , I’m ready to share all information which I have to Royal Bulgarian daggers. Some of those daggers are well known, some very rare, some under discussion. Just for your guidance from 1934 until 1945 ten kinds of daggers were in used:
Navy officer dirk, Army officer dagger , Air force officer dagger, Medical officer dagger, Labor service officers dagger, dirk of Royal military orchestra, Police officer dirk, Gendarmerie officer dagger, Fire officer dagger and Brannik officer dagger.
To my great regret I’m not in possession of all ten kind of daggers but I do hope that Gary or Jim or somebody else may have full collection of those daggers.
I’ll start with the oldest Bulgarian dagger - Navy officer dirk was approved with the signature of prince Ferdinand I in 1905.
Sorry but presently I’m moving in new house and I haven’t time to put in order my collectin,so I’ll improvise with a small photo studio.

Shortly before the final Russian evacuation in 1879 Bulgaria received as present 6-7 Russian war vessels .From 1879 until 1913 Bulgaria had 42 Navy officers only, most of them were Russians, Germans or French navy officers. For example from 1899 until 1908 the first naval officer and Navy chief was French Lt Paul Pichon. During this period 1st model naval dirk was in used – produced in Solingen with engraved blade.
2nd model was produced in Bulgaria .

Belt and hangers

The belt