H013957 CLOSE COMBAT/TRENCH KNIFE. (Nahkampfmesser)

BACKGROUND: Although hunting and fighting knives had been around for centuries it wasn’t until WWI that the close combat/trench knife truly came into its own. The bayonets of the period proved to be too long, heavy and unwieldy in close combat situations which led to some soldiers privately purchasing hunting style knives for use in the field. By 1915 the German blade manufacturers recognized a demand for the smaller close combat/trench knives and a number of them started to produce them in greater quantities. The smaller close combat/trench knives became quite popular and saw widespread usage. This popularity was not lost on the blade manufacturers and at the beginning of WWII many started to produce a wide range of close combat/trench knives in both ordnance issue and private purchase versions with numerous minor variations.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: The knife features a roughly, 5 3/4" long, drop forged steel construction, non-fullered, blade with a long top swedge. The blade shows light surface spotting and scratching and some of the original cross-graining is still visible. Both sides of the ricasso are well marked with a deeply stamped numeral to the obverse, "730", and the faint, manufacturer’s date and three letter code that appears to be, "42 asw", indicating manufacture by E.u.F. Hörster Stahl und Metallwarenfabrik of Solingen in 1942. The knife has a small, integral, horizontally oval, steel cross guard and nicely contoured, carved, natural softwood grips. The grip are secured to the blade tang by three small, flush, flat headed steel rivets. Of Note: The single piece, drop forged, blade, cross guard and tang was a construction technique generally associated with the Hörster firm. The knife comes complete with its original, black painted, sheet metal scabbard which retains about 30% of its original black paint with large spots of wear to the base steel with light surface spotting. The scabbard has its small, throat retaining, rivet intact to the obverse and a single prong, spring steel retaining clip with three small retaining rivets to the reverse.

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-E-Mail Address pawmac@nbnet.nb.ca  Or  guild@nb.aibn.com

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