Original German Early WWII SA Dagger by Rare Maker Arthur Wingen “Chromolit” with Scabbard Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice service worn condition early pattern SA Dagger, made by the very rare firm of Arthur Wingen “Chromolit”, located in Solingen, the legendary “City of Blades” in Western Germany. This company only made a small number of these daggers during the early Third Reich period, making them quite rare. It comes comes compete with its original scabbard.

The dagger has solid nickel silver fittings throughout, and is a nice example. The crossguards and tang nut are in very good condition throughout with all fittings having a nice aged patina. There is some age to these mounts but there is no lifting anywhere, showing that they are solid and not plated. They show light wear with some light denting in areas. The lower reverse guard is Gruppe/Gau marked B, for Berlin-Brandenburg, an SA Administrative region to the surrounding the capital of Berlin, the core area of the Third Reich.

The grip is in good condition, and definitely shows wear due to use and age. The shoulders of the grips look to have cracked off long ago, and the edges were smoothed out to improve the appearance. The stain/dye used on these grips made them brittle, so they were prone to cracking. There is a lot of chipping on this grip near both the crossguard and pommel fitting.

The SA symbol button is still present, but is missing a lot of the original enamel. The grip eagle is a fine example being the style with beak that points straight, though it definitely shows wear, which has made the details faint. It has just a bit of verdigris on it, showing that it is solid nickel alloy, and it has patinated nicely.

The blade on this example is in very nice condition, with a lot of the original factory final polish crossgrain visible on both sides of the blade. There is however also signs of oxidation on both sides, which has been cleaned off, making the markings a bit faint. The blade still has the correct factory blunt edges, with no signs of sharpening. The acid-etched Alles für Deutschland (Everything for Germany) SA motto is present, but cleaning has made the edges a bit rounded, and the factory darkening is mostly worn away. It also shows scratches or some type of grinding down the center ridge of the blade right through the motto, which has made it hard to read.

Towards the ricasso there is the tradmark logo of Arthur Wingen, Chromolit-Besteckfabrik (Chromolite Knife Factory), located in Solingen, Germany, which is clear:

CHROMOLIT
ch
* SOLINGEN *

Per J. Anthony Carter’s book GERMAN KNIFE AND SWORD MAKERS, this firm only produced a few SA / NSKK daggers during the early Third Reich Period. The company was founded by Arthur Wingen, one of Anton Wingen’s three sons, and mainly specialized in chrome-plated cutlery and flatware. They utilized a cursive “ch” trademark both on its own, or with the name and address as well.

The steel scabbard shell is straight throughout and is the early-war style, with a brown “anodized” finish on the steel, originally protected by a lacquer coating. This example has lost just about all of the lacquer, though the brown anodized finish is still mostly present, with areas of wear and oxidation.

The upper and lower fittings are solid nickel silver, and are really in great shape, showing only light oxidation, and no denting or major wear. All four dome-headed securing screws are present and do not show signs of having been messed with. The top mount and throat throat nicely matches the crossguards.

A very nice early war SA dagger from a very rare maker, complete with an original scabbard. 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.