Kantinenbesteck Messer (canteen cutlery knife)

[oliverzx6]

Hello,
please your opinion, if it´s an original or not.
thanks
greetings
Oliver

[oliverzx6]

close-up could be an optical illusion: the eagle is not sublime, the brass colour is in the grooves

[Danmark]

I have these - ALL the eagles are stamped into the metal, yours seems to be engraved - never seen that before?

[Edward Lionheart]

ALL the eagles are stamped into the metal, yours seems to be engraved - never seen that before

Hello. To me it looks like regular stamping, I have several knives Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe stamped with similar features, what worries me more is the design of the eagle itself : it looks very bulky with a weird head looking like a plastic straw straight out of a soda can.
Is this a result of faulty stamping ? The alleged brass traces inside the eagle itself look totally fine to me, it's just dirt with some aluminium patina deposit.
The blade that reads Rostrfrei Solingen is also worthy of our attention : can somenone identify that maker's mark with a bird holding a spoon in its beak ?
In the LGK&F logo on the handle " L " stands for " Luedenscheid " and it it the first time I see one of their knives with a blade marked " Solingen ".

[oliverzx6]

Hello,
i think, it is not embossed. Who would go to the trouble of counterfeiting "cheap/simple" canteen cutlery like that (and with brass traces)? Looks likes milled and not embossed. Possibly early work from Poland etc.?
The eagle may have been milled later: the rest seems to be original
greetings Oliver

[Edward Lionheart]

There are no brass traces as stated before, if you take a good look at mess knives, forks and spoons with aluminium handles you will often notice a similar brown / gold deposit.
On the majority of mess knives the eagle isn't factory stamped, it is added later after being purchased by one branch of service or another, so you cannot conclude anything from that fact itself.
The " LGK&F 39 " seems genuine, and the eagle itself wouldn't look that weird if it was not so asymetrical with that heavily stylized neck and head.

[oliverzx6]

Hello,
here another example:

Field cutlery fork marked GK&F 42 – fjm44

I also tend to believe that my knife (with stemping/embossing) is an original...

greetings
Oliver

[Edward Lionheart]

I am sorry to say that comparing early war mess silverware with a fork from a mid war private purchase 4 pieces set is not gonna be helpful at all, the interlocking cutlery sets having quite often their own markings that do not match in shape nor size those of military issued silverware, even when the maker is the same.
As stated before the authenticity of your knife wasn't questioned in itself, only the eagle was a bit unusual.