Hello, I am a brand new collector and have been trying to pick up information by viewing all of your posts on here. Today I bought my first dagger and I was hoping some collectors here could look at it and tell me about it. It is stamped Eickhorn Solingen, and the blade is in real good shape with crossgraining present. I paid $500 for this dagger with the portapee, did I get a fair deal? What is the proper ettiquette for cleaning these? This one has some corrosion on the scabbard as you can see. Should I just leave it alone and wipe some oil on it or should I polish it up with semichrome or equiv? Thanks!

Hello valhalla ss, first let me welcome to the forum.
The best thing before buying anything is to study reference books, to study threads in serious forums and to ask questions before buying.
Also buy the condition you want and don´t buy lower condition and try to upgrade, it nearly never will work.
What you have bought is one of the most common daggers produced by one of the most common manufacturers and the dagger is imo in less than average condition.
Although the prices do increase (also on these items when they are in absolutely best condition), due to the overall lost finish of the dagger, the corrosion on the scabbard (only use some weapon´s oil, no simicrome on this; best is "renaissance wax" - do a search in the net) and the grey spots on the blade I would assume that this dagger, together with the portepee (might have been with the dagger but due to improper binding the wearing traces do not correspond) is around 250-300 USD.
Regards,

Well,I am glad it is at least real. I will chalk it up to a learning experience and put it in the safe. Is the potapee on mine tied wrong? How do I tie it on right? Also, if it's in poor condition, why should I not try to get the rust off the scabbard? would that hurt the value even more?

Fittings have the look of the late war unplated ones though it may be just patina. The unplated ones are quite rare and collectors of all the army types seem to like them. As suggested a little wax will give the fitting a nice sheen and get rid of that dull grey look without causing any damage.
I had one a few years ago and polished it with a proprietary metal polish, it looked nice for a while but very quickly went back to its old dull grey, they, the fittings, are made from pot metal and very quickly oxidize, therefore a wax coating is best, it will also protect the fittings as well.

Nolan

Is this scabbard plated or finished with a process? or is it just pot metal? if I can, I am going to try to get the rust off I think.

I believe this dagger would have had a silver wash originally, but was certainly produced late in the war and the quality does not withstand the test of time as the early pieces do. I remember reading somewhere that the zinc fittings gradually absorbs the silver wash, so another 10 years and the one below will look like yours!.
In the UK your dagger would fetch $400 imo, so you didnt do too badly .

I would not touch the dagger scabbard with simichrome. I would apply some silicone or weapons oil as Wotan said and lightly clean it with a soft cotton cloth. Then I would apply the renwax after you remove the oil residue. In this condition I would say about $350.The rust on the scabbard would deter most collectors.