Original German WWII Early Luftwaffe Officer Sword by SMF with Waffen Mark – Nickel Plated Blade Original Items

Original Items: Only One Available. This is a very nice 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 26 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. The sword looks to have seen moderate service, and is also marked with 68874, marked with an engraving pen. This could be the operating number of the owner, or maybe the soldier who captured it.

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 Weimar eagle 5 inspection stamp above the maker mark, a common Luftwaffe inspection mark, who continued to use the Weimar style eagle throughout the war. 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 caps for the “Sunwheel” Swas (hook cross) designs on the pommel. They do show some wear to the plating, with one side polished down to the bare brass, while the other still has plating between the “arms”. The pommel also has very nice rims, 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 still have mostly complete 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 very good condition throughout and still shows all of the leather grain. There is some wear and finish flaking, and the blue color has faded to more of a green. The original double twisted bullion wire wrapping is intact, with a great dark patina and some of the copper base metal showing

The scabbard shell is nice and straight, with no denting to the metal body. The original Moroccan blue leather here is also in very good shape. This leather is all there, and we cannot even find the seam, so it has not lifted at all. There are however handling marks, scuffs, and small tears from years of storage and service. The scabbard mounts are a fine matching nickel alloy with silver plate. The mounts are in good condition, with fully intact plating with a great dark patina in places. The Moroccan leather sword hanger is present, and shows age, with wear to the leather, but is fully intact and has no repairs.

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

Specifications:

Blade Length: 26 1/4″
Blade Style: Double Edge w/ Partial Fuller
Overall length: 33 1/4“
Crossguard: 5″
Scabbard length: 27 1/4”