All About Pocket Knives

I got this sword as part of an auction I won in the mid 90's in Pine Bush, New York.
I'm pretty sure it is for some fraternal organization or ......? I don't think it has a
direct connection to Nazi Germany. Maybe the German-American Bund? It has 3 maker marks total.
The scabbard has no markings that I can see/find. The sword itself is approx. 36 3/4" long.
When I first got it, I tried and tried to get information, but got nowhere. Maybe now, with
the knowledgeable people on this forum, I can finally get some answers.

Spartan was a trademark registered by N.S. Meyer co. in NY in 1956. They had swords made in West Germany for military schools and even West Point cadets. I found a picture of their standard West Point 1872 reproduction model from 1959, but haven't seen any with the symbol found on yours. Hard to believe a maker in West Germany in the 1950s would have been permitted to put a swastika on anything! <edit>
Here's a link with a little info about N.S. Meyer company
https://www.14to42.net/20streete042.html

Thank you for the link. I did find info on Meyer when I first started investigating
this sword. I found info on the Spartan stamp also. Just couldn't get past the
swastika being included. Wouldn't the sword be stamped West Germany if it were
from West Germany?

Nice old sword.

samb1955 wrote:Nice old sword.

Thank you.

But the question remains, what group/organization had this?
Is this from the Fritz Kuhn, German-American Bund era? Is it
from the George Lincoln Rockwell, American Nazi Party era?
It had to have come from somewhere. I firmly believe it to be,
at the least, pre-1960. This is frustrating to say the least.

That is a very nice sword. I am questioning just how the swastika emblem is applied to the sword. My thought is that the swastika was attached after the sword was sold. I do not think that any maker of swords of that quality would have made one with a swastika after 1945. Maybe some unreconstructed Nazi who had moved to New York wanted to personalize his sword?

Dinadan wrote:That is a very nice sword. I am questioning just how the swastika emblem is applied to the sword. My thought is that the swastika was attached after the sword was sold. I do not think that any maker of swords of that quality would have made one with a swastika after 1945. Maybe some unreconstructed Nazi who had moved to New York wanted to personalize his sword?

I thought of that possibility also. I examined the emblem as best as I could,
with a good magnifying glass. Yes, it could have been applied after the sale.
But it could have also been made that way. If it was applied after the sale,
whoever applied it did a VERY GOOD JOB! But how can you tell for sure?
Maybe I should just resign myself to the fact that I have a nice, old(?) sword
and leave it at that. Or maybe not.....

I had a bayonet with a swastika like that. I took it to a military collector. He said that stuff turns up all the time. There are people that will put a swastika on anything German to try to increase the price. Not saying thats what happend here but i would be suspicious.
Bruce

My hunting buddy is a printer, he prints stuff for the NRA, and he prints stuff for Hand Gun Control Inc. A company is in business to make money not be a moral compass. Now, if the owner of the company wants to place his moral beliefs above profit, good for him. Like Chic-filet being closed on Sundays. I have a German Officers Saber with a Swatstika on it. I also had a friend in college whose grand parents were killed in concntration camps. He was surprised that I kept the Saber, until I told him, "If they were all destroyed, there would be no proof of the 6 million Jews killed". He thought about it a couple days and told me to keep it and show it to people. There were Neo Nazi's on campus that said no jews were killed in WWII. Many young people weren't around when it happened, so they believed the Neo Nazis. There is a lot on line about Nazi swords and sabers, and I found several dealers that a lot of material for sale. They had a saber like mine. I think I posted picks of it when I first joined, now I can't find one to post. If I get down stairs I'll take another to post, Joe.