Gents,

 

I picked up an interesting generic German Police Sword at the Louisville, KY Show of Shows (SOS) last week that I thought I would show. This is a plain P guard nickel hilt sword by WKC with the knight head logo over "WKC" on the ricasso of the blade. The grip is black celluloid over wood with wire wrap as is normally seen with these P guard swords from between the wars. The single edged curved blade has a wide fuller and is nickel plated steel. The scabbard is black leather with a seam on the back and there are two nickel fittings. The top fitting has a single suspension ring and the bottom fitting has a well developed drag with both being secured by staples in the usual manner.

This particular sword is not in the WKC catalogs that I have but it is quite similar to other Polizei swords in their catalog. Period photos also show these in wear by various policemen up until around 1938. As a matter of fact the nickel scabbard fittings have a small part number "10" under the staples and the scabbard is identical to the Wurttemberg Polizei-Wachtmeister-Sabel (their Nr.813). The same part number "10" is found on both WKC swords in my collection. The blade appears to be the same as well but the hilt is entirely different with the Wurttemberg sword having a D guard. This scabbard appears to be the same as the Thuringer Polizei-Sabel as well but with a different blade and hilt.

So, the new sword that I have seems to be a generic Polizei Sword made by WKC for wear up until these departmental police swords were all replaced circa 1938 by the nationalized Polizei Degen. Does anyone by chance have a WKC catalog that shows this particular sword by name or number?

It seems that these early Imperial time frame "Fusilier" style swords continued to be worn by German Police personnel as a Schleppsabel. I found them listed in a circa 1927 police equipment catalog as a "Wachtmeister-Schleppsabel mit Fusiliergefass, schwarze Lederscheide, Beschlage aus Neusilber". The P guard officer swords were similar but had lion head pommels. This was accomplished by changing the back strap and making them available in "Neusilber, Tombak, oder vergoldet".

Parts is parts in the edged weapon making business.

A related question. Is my knife made from a cut-down sword also police and not military? It's made by Alexander Coppel and marked "ALC" with the scales. Thanks

Spaff,

 

Your cut down sword probably started out life as a private purchase "Plain Jane" P guard generic military sword with a black painted steel scabbard. The scabbard may have been missing or the blade broken or the guard damaged so somebody cut it down and made a new leather scabbard for it. Most probably a GI as this is not an official modification.

Thanks for the information. There is a shortened metal scabbard under the leather sheath, which works well.

Amazing Polizei sword. Never seen a "Generic". Nice addition to your collection. I take it the the SOS was a good show for you.

Thank you for the posting.

 

Tony

Spaff,

 

You are welcome. I hope the information was useful.

 

Tony,

 

SOS was good to me and I was happy to pick up this particular sword.

 

This sword is probably related to another similar short Polizei sword that was made by WKC that I have in my collection. I picked up a similar German Police short sword at the Minneapolis Military Show a couple of years ago. I first thought it was a curved blade Hessian Polizei short sword but it has a couple of differences. First, the nickel P guard hilt has langets, which the Hesse Police sword does not. Second, it has a distinct flat drag, which the Hesse sword does not. This sword was also made by WKC and has the late Weimar Republic / early NS Zeit helmet with WKC under it marking on the obverse blade underneath the front langet.

This particular short sword is also not shown in my WKC catalogs but I found what I believe to be a match. I have a postcard of the 1920s era Braunschweig Police showing a Policeman directing traffic and wearing a silver color P guard short sword with a flat drag. This sword looks a lot like the one I picked up so Braunschweig Polizei is going to be my tentative identification. If anyone has a WKC catalog showing either of these swords please let me know the item number.

 

 

 

WOW what a beauty, perhaps one day if you get time you might post a side by side picture for comparison. Thank you for all your great information also.

 

Tony