GERMAN WWII DAGGER & EDGE WEAPONS CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS - The German armed forces, police, political and paramilitary organizations created a wide variety of daggers and edge weapons. The handles of the Nazi edge weapons were made of several materials. The following section provides a list of some of the construction materials employed:

Beech
Used in the construction of SA and NSKK daggers.

Cherry
Employed in the manufacturing of SA daggers.

Celluloid
First developed in 1868, Celluloid is one of the earliest forms of plastics. This material was employed in the manufacturing of Navy daggers and Army swords.

Ebony
Used in the manufacturing of Postal, RLB and SS daggers.

Fruitwood
Employed in the manufacturing of SA daggers.

Galalith
Also known as milkstone. This material was only used for a limited time due to its tendency to softening when exposed to certain conditions. Some Luftwaffe model II daggers were manufactured from Galalith.

Leather covered wood
Daggers produced with leather covered wood included the Luftwaffe model I and the RLB. The wood employed in the construction of these pieces is the same as that employed in the building of other daggers but it did not meet the manufacturing standards. instead of discarding the material it was employed in this fashion.

Maple
Maple was used in the production of many different handles because of its hard and stable nature. Various types of daggers were constructed from this wood.

Oak
This type of wood was employed extensively in the construction of dagger handles. Some of the light colored SA dagger handles were produced from this material.

Plumbwood
Used heavily in the manufacturing of SA daggers.

Trolon
Trolon was the plastic material which replaced the use of Galalith. Among the daggers that were constructed using this material include: Red cross dagger, Railway dagger and Army officer dagger.

Walnut




The following is a collection of photographs which depict the different types of materials employed in the construction of the handles of the bladed weapons of the Third Reich.

WWII German Army dagger	WWII German K-98 bayonet
WWII German Luftwaffe Model I	WWII German Army Officer Sword
WWII German SA Dagger	WWII German SS Dagger

If you have an interest is seeing other daggers and sword of the Third Reich, you can do so by going to our WWII German edge weapons identification guide. Where we cover edge weapons from the Heer (Army), Navy (Kriegsmarine), Air Force (Luftwaffe) and other organizations.

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