Original Item: Only One Available. This excellent condition mid-war period produced SA Dagger has nickel-plated fittings throughout. The crossguards and tang nut are nickel plated alloy, and have about 90% of the plating intact, with some speckling and light patination in areas. There is a little age to these mounts but there is no lifting anywhere.

The grip is a fine product having a subtle mahogany tone in the surfaces and having medium center ridge construction. This grip is in very good condition with minor shrinking and a tiny chip. The symbol button is nicely set having 99% intact enameling. The nickel grip eagle is a fine example being the style with beak that points upward slightly. The details are still there to the eagle to include the beak, breast feathering, wing feathering, talons, wreath and mobile swas.

The blade of this example is in very good condition and has much of the original factory final grind crossgrain. It does however show some past oxidation, which was cleaned away, making the cross grain faint. There still is a bit of light staining present in areas. There is also the usual runner wear from the scabbard. The acid-etched Alles für Deutschland (Everything for Germany) SA motto is crisp, however cleaning has removed a lot of the factory darkening. The reverse ricasso is etched with a double circle with RZM logo in the middle over M7 / 37. This indicates Post-1941 manufacture by Robert Klaas of Solingen. This well-known company was located in the Solingen-Ohligs area, and produced all manner of Feine Solinger Stahlwaren (Fine Solingen Steelware).

The Reichszeugmeisterei, or RZM, was was based at the Brown house in Munich and NSDAP party headquarters in Berlin. The RZM ensured that the manufacturers of military items were consistent in design, quality of materials and other characteristics of the items. It also defined standards of design, manufacturing and quality and published an authoritative color chart for textiles. The M7 in the code stands for knives/daggers, contractor 37 stands for firm Robert Klaas, a well-known maker from Solingen, the famous "City of Blades" in Western Germany, which marketed many fine edged weapons. They started to particularly specialize in pocket knives during WWII, and post war they continued to specialize. They continue to make pocket knives to this day, and are very well regarded.

The scabbard shell is straight throughout and has excellent original chocolate brown paint. This paint has a little bit of crazing in the surfaces but overall it is still bright and rates at about 98%. The scabbard shell is equipped with fine matching nickel alloy non-magnetic mounts, which have a lovely patina. These mounts are in lovely condition, with minimal denting, and indicate that this dagger was made during the transitional period before the move to plated steel mounts.

An excellent mid-war example of an SA dagger from a top maker. Ready to display!

Specifications:
Blade Length: 8 3/4"
Overall length: 13 3/4”
Crossguard: 3”
Scabbard Length: 10”

History of the SA-

The SA or Brown Shirts, were a private political formation which Adolf AH and the NSDAP used to maintain order at organized Party meetings and demonstrations. The group was formed in 1921, and grew to a huge force of nearly 3,000,000 men by the later 1930's. To instill esprit de corps, as well as create employment for the Blade City of Solingen, it was decided each SA man would carry a dagger with his Brown Shirt uniform. Huge quantities needed to be produced to accommodate the demand. The dagger initially was produced of hand-fitted nickel mounts with attractive finished wood grip and brown anodized (a bluing process) finished scabbard.

The blade was etched with the SA motto, Alles für Deutschland. Examples produced prior to 1935 were stamped with the German sector of the SA group on reverse lower crossguard. Later examples underwent standardization through the RZM ministry. These pieces were produced of cheaper plated zinc-base fittings and scabbards were simply painted brown.

Prior to his "unmasking" as a traitor, Ernst Röhm was the leader of the SA. In 1934, he distributed approximately 100,000 SA daggers with his personal inscription on the reverse blade. These daggers were to honor individuals who had served with the SA prior to December, 1931. Other than the inscription, these pieces were identical to the standard M1933 SA dagger. After the Röhm purge, the inscription was ordered to be removed. Many examples were returned to the factory for grinding. Others were simply ground in the field by whatever means were available. Examples will occasionally be encountered with remnants of the original inscription remaining on the blade, but mostly none will remain. Some blades exist with an intact inscription, reflecting only the removal of the Röhm signature. Very very rarely is an example seen with a full, untouched inscription, as the holder would have surely risked a charge of treason.