Original German WWII Early Luftwaffe Officer Sword by SMF with Nickel Plated Blade & Scabbard Original Items

Original Items: Only One Available. This is a very nice and very early example of a German WWII Luftwaffe Officer’s Sword from the famous maker SMF. Early examples such as this were fit with silver-plated nickel alloy mountings, with lovely brass “Sunwheel” style Hankenkreuz (Hook Cross or Swas) emblems. Later they would move to the “Air Age” aluminum material, which didn’t develop the lovely patina that this sword has.

The blade of this example measures 30 1/4 inches, and is in very good used condition. It still retains most of the nickel plating, though there are small areas of plating loss and oxidation, as well as the usual runner wear. There is also some scuffing, as well as just bit of roughness on the unsharpened edge.

The reverse ricasso of this sword is marked with the SMF trademark logo, which features the etched king holding an upward pointing sword, and is known as the “Seated King”. The king is sitting on the firm initials SMF and is positioned above an arch shaped town location SOLINGEN. Solinger Metalwaren-Fabrik Stöcker & Co. GmbH, also known as SMF, were one of the major suppliers of edged weapons to the Luftwaffe during WWII. As the name implies, they were located in Solingen, the legendary “City of Blades” in Western Germany. For more information, please see J. Anthony Carter’s fine work GERMAN SWORD AND KNIFE MAKERS.

There is also a very early pattern Luftwaffe Eagle inspection stamp above the maker mark, which predated the numbered “Stick Eagle” used later in the pre-war period. We have rarely seen swords with this early pattern proof. The leather blade buffer at the top of the cross guard is fully present, and in good condition.

This early Luftwaffe Sword has very nice plated nickel alloy mounts, with brass inlaid caps for the “Sunwheel” Swas (hook cross) designs on the pommel. This sword looks to have been dropped on the pommel at some point, which slightly deformed the round frame, causing the central circle to pop out slightly on one side. We can see the edge, and it looks like the panels are definitely nickel with inlaid brass.

The pommel also has very nice rims aside from the denting, with just some light edge scratching, and very nice stamping to the oak leaves and acorns which run around the circumference. The lower cross guard sun wheels are all brass, and have lost all of the silvering between the legs. The crossguards are nice and crisp and they both have good detail to the feathering of the downward pointing quillons, which still have a lot of the plating, now oxidized and patinated.

The grip is a wood based type, with original Moroccan blue leather covering. This leather is in good condition throughout and still shows much of the leather grain. There is wear and finish flaking, and the blue color has faded to almost black in areas, with the brown base color of the leather shown as well. The original double twisted bullion wire wrapping is intact, with a great dark patina and some of the copper base metal showing

The nickel alloy scabbard shell mostly straight, with no denting to the metal body and a bend about 12 inches above the drag. The original Moroccan blue leather here is also in very good shape, with the finish and color well retained. There are some tears and scrapes on the leather, as shown, including one that shows the nickel body of the scabbard. The scabbard mounts are a fine matching nickel alloy with silver plate. The mounts are in good condition, with mostly intact plating.

A very nice early Luftwaffe sword from a well-known Solingen maker, with a nickel-plated blade. Ready to display!

Specifications:

Blade Length: 30 1/4″
Blade Style: Double Edge w/ Partial Fuller
Overall length: 37 1/4“
Crossguard: 5″
Scabbard length: 31”