The ! SS Daggers
If you’ve ever read through Witty’s bible on the Exclamation Motto SS Daggers, it’s not only confusing as to which company made which dagger during what time period, but we really have never understood why these special SS daggers were even produced in the 1st place. I’ll try to do my best to explain this if I can. With period produced and known M33 SS trademarked daggers in collections today, we know for sure that at least 2 edged weapon firms made the Exclamation Motto etched blades. Those 2 companies were Jacobs and K&M ( Klittermann & Moog). For years the collecting community always assumed that the RZM 7/29 Exclamation Motto SS daggers were the work of the Jacobs company because of the association of the trademarked pieces that are seen produced by this company. To my knowledge, there are only a couple (1-3) of the Klittermann & Moog trademark early 33’s in existence, so the association of the RZM 7/29 was assumed to be the product of the Jacobs firm when the RZM code system took the place on blades. To confuse the matter more, collectors were faced with Exclamation Motto SS daggers that carried the RZM 324/37 & RZM 324/38 maker codes. Once again the collecting community assumed that this was the Jacobs firm being assigned a new manufacturing code under the confusing RZM system. Bear in mind that we didn’t even know of any maker marked Klittermann & Moog in existence and it is only recently that a couple have come to light.
Through the research of period information on the RZM assigned numbering system, we know that the Jacobs company was issued the license code of M 7/34 up until the year of 1935. So in fact this was just a short period from the end of where we see maker marked blades being produced, and the RZM numbering system being installed. During the years of 1936-1938 the Jacobs RZM number disappeared from the license list of those firms producing SA & SS daggers. In 1939 the RZM code of M7/118 is now seen with the Jacobs firm being assigned this new code. The RZM license list of 1939 shows the same exact address of the Jacobs firm as was listed in the 1935 list. Evidently the company either shut down for 3 years, went under or something because there is no evidence of this firm being listed again as a dagger producer until 1939.
The code of RZM M7/29 with the Klittermann & Moog trademark has been found on Transitional SA daggers bearing both of these proofs on the same blade. So this does tie the RZM M7/29 SS Exclamation Etch to the K&M firm in my mind. There are some characteristics of both the K&M and Jacobs SS daggers that we see in common. Among these are:
1. Both companies were located in the same building in the city of Solingen, just 1 floor apart from each other.
2. All the Exclamation Motto SS daggers are always found with the earliest materials, ie. nickel fittings on not only the dagger itself, but also on the scabbards.
3. All of the blade etches have the same characteristics to the etched letters.
4. With the exception of only one trademarked K&M example, none have district marks on the reverse of the crossguards.
5. We do see some different caster marks in the crossguards, but once again even the RZM 324/38 marked blades are found with nickel fittings. Something that is rarely seen in this later production time.
As I’ve stated before, these had to be some type of Honor Dagger that was produce for a special occasion or special SS group. Himmler didn’t allow personalization’s, alterations, nor deviations of the production of any SS daggers unless it was approved by him personally. Look what happened with the Sepp Dietrich SS Sword. He wore it twice before Himmler put a halt to it. There is no way that 10-12 companies had to do it one way and 2 other little firms got to add a little flare to their blade etch!
Well, hope this kind of sums it up to the best of my information, but there is one other thing that I didn’t touch on and that is, where and how does the RZM 324/37 & 38 SS marked blades fit in ??? Heaven knows the answer to that one as we can’t definitely tie those to either company but most likely they were produce by K&M. If you look at the RZM code and the style of font that the number have, they point toward Klittermann & Moog.