Restoration of A REAL Italian Arditi trench dagger from WW1. For me it is one of THE HOLY GRAILS. It is VERY uncommon to find a knife from 1915 in such a beautiful condition. See me restore this knife with respect.
ABOUT THE WW1 TRENCH DAGGER
I got this dagger donated from one of my Italian subscribers who have seen some of my other World War restorations videos. He told me that this is a Piemonte National Guard knife from around mid 1800 who was shorten down to be effective in the trenches during the battle of WW1.
So this dagger has most likely belonged to an Italian “Arditi” from Royal Italian Army elite special force of World War I. They were the first modern storm troops and they have been defined as "the most feared corps by opposing armies". Italy fought as allied together with Serbia, Russia, France, Britain and the United States against Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire who together formed the Central Powers. For me it feels like I’ve been giving the holy grail. Thank you so much.
ABOUT THE RESTORATION
I started by removing some of the corrosion from the brass so I could figure out how to disassemble the knife. The knife blade and the handle were in unreal good condition with only minor damage to repair. I started sandblasting the knife blade and MIG welded a reinforcement in the upper side of the blade cause the upper part was in really bad shape.
I also repaired a big crack which went thru both sides of the tip on the dagger. I choose TIG welding for this job to have more control because the metal was fragile. I grinded the knife blade and hardened the metal and made it all look as good as possible, without compromising the original trench build from WW1.
The beautiful old dagger handle got a gentle sandblasting too. There was a big hole on one of the quillons that I choose to fill up with solder. I had to grind with my smallest files to make this look good. That repair came out really nice.
For me this could easily be one of my best restorations. So epic and so satisfying to get my hand on such a historical and well conserved relic. I did this repair as lightly as possible without overruling the beautiful old look.
So I’m very pleased with this restoration video and I really hope that you like it too.
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Best wishes and stay safe ❤ Martin