I have this nice Kreigsmarine dagger with a hammered scabbard. My question: Does the knot signify the rank of the holder? The one on my dagger is gold and I know that there were two colors used (silver and gold). Thank you for your assistance. Jim

I wouldn't have thought so, you just got lucky, majority come with silver knots, nice dagger .

Nolan

To my best knowledge and although major dealers always want to emphasize the existence of "golden" portepees on navy daggers (for gaining higher prices I think) they did NOT exist!
Although there are a lot of different looks of these porteppees, there are the mostly seen aluminium variants, then the copper wire/silvered variants (either by patination or if the silvering partially has gone to time they get a golden hue) or those cellon variants (they have a yellow, brown or faded hue) the original intention was NO gold variant.
What I can see from your pic it seems to be one of those cellon variants.
Perhaps you can show close ups for better clasification?
To my best knowledge there is (therefore) also no signification concerning the rank of the holder.
Regards,

Hi Wotan

Sorry about the late response, I missed your post. I have taken pictures of the portepees, the top two pictures show the actual color of the portepees, the next two are closeups of the knot. Jim

This is a "cellon" or nylon type knot. It does not have the Navy type insert. These cellon knots were also used by the Luftwaffe and the Army. They are IMO not originally gold in color.

Thanks Houston for your answer. I just moved the knot on the cross guard and you can see it or another one has been there (color change). I will leave the knot on the dagger and make note of the difference. Do you have a picture of the proper Navy knot? Thanks again for your help. Jim

HERE'S ONE

1

Thanks Bob