SMGQ-0322 m7/80 SS Dagger by Gustav Spitzer

A nice transitional or mid period dagger with plated fittings and an early style grip eagle. The scabbard is painted as it should be on an RZM piece. The scabbard has no dings or dents, just an average amount of paint wear and oxidation. The plated steel scabbard fittings show some light oxidation as well. The ball end is in very good shape which is nice to find, it only has a small dent on the end. The ball fitting has a small crack near the screw from tightening but doesn’t seem to be getting worse and it doesn’t show unless turned on the side. The screws are in good shape, although they are lightly oxidized. On the Dagger, the pommel nut is the steel type and shows some oxidation and no major evidence of properer disassembly. The nut is only hand tight so the dagger can be broken down if desired. There are no issues upon break down of the dagger that I could see.  The grip has some chipping near the top fitting and lower fitting as well. They are not too bad though and actually don’t detract from the dagger in my opinion.  There is a hairline crack on each side of the SS ruin, but they seem to be mostly superficial in nature. During disassembly you can see that with proper handling they won’t cause future problems. The SS ruin has a scratch going through the lower left, but is otherwise in perfect shape. The grip eagle is perfect and expertly set as you would expect from this style. The cross guards are in very good shape for the plated type. The plating shows light popping or lifting but is still very nice for this time period.  Unfortunately the blade has been sharpened on a bench grinder in a rather armature fashion. This is the only major detracting thing on this dagger in   my opinion and does keep the price down below the $3,000 mark.  Luckily, they didn’t take too much off so the blade shape is retained. The is some evidence of water damage in two spots on the RZM side and one on the motto side as well. The blade otherwise looks surprisingly good with the cross grain easy to see and no evidence of excessive polishing. The blade to scabbard fit is excellent and has a nice smooth glide.  This is a nice beginner SS dagger for someone who wasn’t to stay under budget but doesn’t want a hunk of junk.