Makers Mark

Blade

Dagger

Inscription

Stein Fuhrer?

lock

screws

grip

blade2

again

name again

wire

bottom scabbard

very strange peice for sure,i dont like the etch looks a bit lacking in quality IMO, and the maker mark doesnt look right
Adam

sorry guys i stand corrected i have just found one almost identical on Mr Wittmanns site!!! oh well live and learn

Nice Navy Dagger.I thank is just fine. Jeff

Robbi,

Don't worry, this looks like a nice, clean original to me, too.

Do you have a copy of Tom Wittmann's book on German naval daggers? If not, I'd say put that on the top of your "to-do" list, you'll never regret it.

Best regards!

Bill

This is a fine dagger nicely etched !

Tough to find a personalised or inscribed Navy dagger. Very nice Horster you have there, congrats...

Red

Honestly worn and overall slightly patinated, original HÖRSTER navy dagger.
Imo very rare to see a III.R produced navy with full name engraved in the style of WWI. Commonly I do not like additional engravings very much (because there is always a doubt when it was done) but in THIS case it looks like a nice period engraving (due to style, fonts and patination). It mostly is the name of the former wearer "Steinführer".
I highly would recommend: Do a "search" for "Gustavo" and try to contact him per e-mail, he has had big succes in detecting the history of former wearers. The name is not so common and I think it would be possible to trace it down.
Regards,

Thank you all very much for your thoughts and comments. I will endeavour to find out who Steinfuhrer was.

Stein Fuhrer could he be the all time beer drinking champion of the Navy?

No! Actually, as of 1.3. 1945 Oberleutnant Gerhard Steinfuhrer served in the Naval Administrative Supply services.

I am sure there are a great many experts out there that can help you identify these named daggers.

But let me give you a simple hint ---first check Google.com and Google.de. As an interesting example, the For Sale section of THIS SITE !!!!!, not too long ago listed a named TR navy dagger very much like this one for $1100.00. I happened to stumble across it around midnight. I did a couple of Google searches and within 10 minutes I had established that the dagger most likely belonged to the Commander of the secret German U boat base at Penang. I placed the dagger on hold immediately, further research in Germany proved the identity. The complete history of the owner of this rare dagger and the secret U Boat base will be published on our German Navy Dagger website, in the not to distant future.

Vic,

I remember that story, one of the great finds!

The dagger sold on this site belonged to Grutzmacher not the more famous KK Wilhelm Dommes, Hermann will have it all together shortly.

I think it is interesting that the initial google search located Grutzmacher on an Italian site. The info out there is amazing.

http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/se...km/uboote/monsun.htm

I recommend that you become your own name researcher as much as possible. Yu will need to bounce around in a few languages but that is really not a problem with the language tools offered by google. Use of German forums is also really handy, as well as a shelf of ranklists.


http://www.u-historia.com/uhis...historia/bdu/bdu.htm

http://balsi.de/Weltkrieg/Einh...n/33-U-Flottille.htm

Well guys, have u any ideas about this ?

Could be Officer Candidate School graduation date---Just a guess. Look at your Navy Rank List and see if dates match.

Here is a pic of the Grutzmacher dagger sold on GDC. It also is a Horster .

@Vic,
my friend. I knew that you will say something about this dagger sooner or later after the Max-Show.

@Robbi,
sorry for placing my photo and text in your post, you have a nice dagger with a perfect period name engraving.

@Gentlemen,
interesting post, nice to see the engraving.
Of course it is a pleasure for me to to see a period inscription which is very close to the Grützmacher dagger. It is always the same imo: One can pile tr navy daggers, they all have the same look. Sure, different makers, but from a first glance it is the same. So an engraving makes the difference, it will bring history alive. That's the reasons why experienced dagger collectors are chasing behind condition AND personalization.

I have all facts together about Grützmacher, and it is a lot. Unfortunately I am too short in time to bring it together that quick, but I am working on it.
I hope there will be an article in the German magazine Deutsches Waffen Journal and later a larger one on our website for collectors and enthusiasts, for free.

Grützmacher served side by side with Japanese officers during WW2 in Penang. So I have the pleasure to post a pic of the Grützmacher dagger side by side with an Imperial Japanese naval dagger, arranged on the personal flag of a Japanese soldier who served on an U-boat base.

Our website will be available soon, featuring newly aquired dagger informations and extremely rare period photos in wear, for free.

Best;
Flyingdutchman

This is very interesting. I talked to the Canadian Merchant Navy veteran again and asked him for some more information about this dagger. He said he was serving on a ship delivering 10,000 tons of horse meat to Gdansk, Poland in 1946. He told me he picked up the dagger at Kiel as they moved down the Kiel Canal on the way to a port in Poland. He traded a pound of coffee for it from a displaced German. The vet had no idea who Steinfuhrer was and did not notice the name on until later.