Good afternoon dear collectors of cold weapons I want to share with you information and a small problem with which I faced myself, the other day I was asked to check the item for authenticity and make a certificate confirming this fact.

The subject of the study was “Polish officer’s dirk model 1954.”

Started looking for literature to find information first opened the well-known book about dirks “Tadeusz Krulikiewicz – Dirks”, began to read and fill out a qualitative description of the dirk from the book and opened to check the book “Dmitry Fedurin – Dirks of the World” and here I began to suffer vague doubts, according to the description of Fedurin this dirk is considered a Polish officer’s d irk air defense “air defense forces” sample 1954.

Theauthor – Fedurin writes that the dirk air defense differs from the dirk of the Air Force sample 1954 only the presence of an applied emblem of the air defense forces on the front side of the mouth – the image of a soaring eagle with a broom in the beak.

Theauthor – Krulikiewicz writes that placed the traditional sign of the pilot, that is, the eagle.

Differences of opinion hmmm, strange thought I decided to do a little googling, in search of an answer came to the site of a colleague seller of antique weapons and saw that he unifies this dirk as an air defense, then began to search the forums and all write air defense….

So Fedurin was right, I write Dirk officer air defense officer Poland, but the next day while looking for information about the owner of the dirk (and the dirk named)

Found the information on the forum quote:

“Polish air defense dirk” is a common misconception. The dirk with eagle was issued to pilots, while the dirk with squares was issued to all air force personnel. According to other information, pilots received dirks with a plaque “automatic”, and with eagles (pilot’s badge) as a reward (this one is more correct, in my opinion)

And again I thought about it, so everything is correct and logical, the eagle badge means that the dirk belongs to a pilot, not to a person having a relation to the Air Force, but to a pilot! Eureka and Krulikevich is right.

I decided to reread Krulikiewicz and when I found this quote from the book “The Polish dirk was issued in two versions: award and everyday for flying staff (the latter were purchased by pilots in military uniform stores).

On the award dirk, on the outer side of the upper shackle of the scabbard, there was a miniature of the traditional pilot’s badge. And on the everyday dirk on the same place (at an angle of 45e) there was an enameled plaquette – a square in red and white checkers”.

The only thing left to find out is what kind of dirk did the Air Defense Forces get? I never figured it out, but so far it doesn’t bother me much.

Who knows the answer write will be interested to know your opinion.