Red Cross & Social Welfare Daggers

The subordinate or "EM, Enlisted Man" Hewer was easily one of the "coolest" daggers I remember growing up. With it's massive size and saw back, it was surely a dangerous looking piece! The flat tip was supposedly designed to work around Geneva Convention rule that mandated that civilian organizations may not carry a weapon. I'm not sure however, that the design was truly inspired by this law since the leader dagger is pointed. The saw back was more of a symbol of a practical use in the field then anything else. It was obviously rarely used for any type of tasking regardless of what some may say. The fact of the matter is, these were big, cumbersome and lacked a sharp edge and really were only for show. In my experience only about 1 in 30 of these I've encountered show any real signs of use or sharpening and of those, it's a good bet that most were sharpened by the GIs who brought them back. These were mass produced and there were only two discernible makers that we know of. Both makers had unmarked blades. The tang runs into the one piece guard/pommel combo. This "Hilt" is cast and rather brittle. A couple hits with a punch trying to remove the internal rivets that attach to the tang will often result in a completely destroyed dagger.

The Officers dagger was actually produced in two forms. One for Social Welfare Leaders and the other for RDK Leaders. They are identical except for the scabbard suspension holes. It is very common to find these with damaged grips, as many people assumed they could unscrew the pommel like an army dagger. This certainly is not the case, and any attempt to remove the pommel without a special tool will crack the solid celluloid grip. Authentic grips for these are nearly impossible to find.

All of the above daggers were available in 1938.