RME 1945 sling

[flynaked]

I’d like to get some opinions on this one. I talked it over with Michael when I got it, and it appears the majority or all? RME 98k slings are of the late pattern without a buckle or frosch. I maybe grasping at straws, but perhaps they were not tooled up for production of these components, given the style of their later manufacture, and perhaps that explains the early style buckle on this sling? Perhaps they were surplus or reject components that were used up later, it does have a minor stamping flaw after all. It’s in poor condition and missing the frosch, but still interesting. The other thing to note is that the other style RME slings and K43 pouches are a different font without serifs, but at the same time this doesn’t feel especially fake, curious to hear thoughts on it though, and if anyone else has seen one like it?

 

[Slash]

In my head I was trying to come up with another circumstance where the code was in upper case letters and I just couldn't come up with one. Can anyone else?

There are a number of "codes" in all upper case letters. Especially on metal worked items such as canteens and mess tins. In most cases these are not actually codes but abbreviations for a company. The abbreviations usually include parts of the firm name and often end with the location of the concern. They are also usually in all capital letters. Some examples -

CFL - Carl Feldhaus Aluminium-und Metallwerke, Lüdenscheid
DMN - Deutsche Metallwerke AG, Neustadt
ET - Eisenhüttenwerke, Thale
HRE - Heinrich Ritter, Esslingen
HWP - Hermann Wuppermann, Pinneberg
JSD - J.Schmalzeder Erben, Dresden
RFI - Rudolf Fissler KG, Idar-Oberstein
SMM - Süddeutsche Metallwarenfabrik, Mussbach
VDNS - Vereinigte Deutsche Nickelwerke/Nickel-und Stahlwerke, Schwerte

There are others; KH and CNX on rg34 behälter. REP for Richard Ehrhardt, Pössneck has been found on tropical bayonet frogs. More toward the point here the RME45 marking has also been observed on G/K43 magazine pouches.

Personally, I like the sling ......

 

[mrfarb]

I told Clay, I'm not a fan of it. The buckle is early, the stamping is made from individual letters, and the font/style is wrong. I've seen RME on so many different items, from slings to Y-Straps, holsters, pouches - all use the exact same font and style. To me it looks hand done, an original unmarked sling with added markings. Thats my feeling.

 

[Slash]

I told Clay, I'm not a fan of it. The buckle is early, the stamping is made from individual letters, and the font/style is wrong. I've seen RME on so many different items, from slings to Y-Straps, holsters, pouches - all use the exact same font and style. To me it looks hand done, an original unmarked sling with added markings. Thats my feeling.

You make some good points.

 

[Hambone]

FN, as Farb said, the letters are individually stamped and the seriph font is not appropriate for the RME coded items I've seen. I think that stamp was added letter to sex up the sling. Sorry.

 

[swjXE]

It seems that whoever marked it was either bent on fakery or obsessed with the desire to have a 45 dated sling,

 

[flynaked]

All very good points made. It certainly is a different font which doesn’t seem to jive, but in general individually stamped codes can’t be an instant issue, that would make early 1939 Gustloff and 1934 Sauers fake too then.

 

[swjXE]

I agree, and if genuine, it would be a case of RME whoever they were, transitioning all of a sudden from a single sans serif stamp to individually stamping each letter and number with serifs, and also recycling old sling buckles. Has anyone ever seen an RME sling anyway? Clay, I love you like a bastard stepchild, but I think you've run off the tracks on this one.

 

[flynaked]

Not that it explains it, or trying to defend it, but here is a possible scenario. Just like a hand stamped 337 1939 code, at the onset of production or year changes there can be anomalies, yes they had RME44 before this, but what about the beginning of 1945, did they instantly have the correct new die? Just one thought, and more so just a rhetorical point about scenarios that defy the normal. I trust and value y’alls input, that’s why I asked, it was cheap and so I thought it worth the gamble. The gentleman I bought it from in Germany said he found it in a barn over 30 years ago, but it was surely a fakers hideout and he simply pulled one over on me, live and learn.

 

[mrfarb]

Just sayin, everything fake i see from Europe came from a barn. Lol.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Hambone]

Just sayin, everything fake i see from Europe came from a barn. Lol.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The fakes from the US "came directly from the vet's (insert relative type here)" or "found in a closet" or "bought at the estate sale / garage sale of a vet." Over at WAF there was one of the heroes of the waftarded, the great WAFpert, the finder and seller of "exotic freshie camos," who got them directly from Philly Cat ("this cat in Philly who is my picker") or "from the vet's ___________."

 

[ugafx4]

Hope you can get your $700 bucks back Clay.

 

[flynaked]

Yep, I’ll take a loss at $650 if any members would like to pick it up. Perfect for the reenactor at least??

 

[mdarnell19]

I agree, and if genuine, it would be a case of RME whoever they were, transitioning all of a sudden from a single sans serif stamp to individually stamping each letter and number with serifs, and also recycling old sling buckles. Has anyone ever seen an RME sling anyway? Clay, I love you like a bastard stepchild, but I think you've run off the tracks on this one.

Yes. They exist.

 

[swjXE]

Holy Jeeks, The last I'd heard about this style of sling was that these were original slings, but were made just after the war. What's the consensus on these now? Who was RME anyway? I've never owned the book that contains all of the codes. I have a sling at home that's identical to this one, but I never inspected it for markings. I'm sure gonna look it over now.

 

[Aaron]

How the heck can you tell these super late slings apart from these postwar slings? They remind me of the East German SKS slings with just a leather knob holding them in place instead of the frosch. https://www.libertytreecollectors.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=11474

 

[mrfarb]

How the heck can you tell these super late slings apart from these postwar slings? They remind me of the East German SKS slings with just a leather knob holding them in place instead of the frosch. https://www.libertytreecollectors.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=11474

It’s the same design. Imo they were late mp44 slings. In fact, this one Matt posted was in a batch of postwar slings. It’s a natural progression, but it’s a very rare design so just assume they are all postwar and you’ll be safe.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[swjXE]

Thanks for the enlightenment Mike. The one that I have, which is identical to Matt's, (Except that his appears to be dyed black on the reverse side of the leather and is marked.) is made of what appears to be Czech pattern leather so I'm assuming that RME might have been a Czech company. Some day I vow to endeavor to find out if this is true.

 

[Aaron]

It’s the same design. Imo they were late mp44 slings. In fact, this one Matt posted was in a batch of postwar slings. It’s a natural progression, but it’s a very rare design so just assume they are all postwar and you’ll be safe.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The only difference I'm seeing is the czechs have those two imprinted lines on each end, but you see that on some wartime slings and plenty of equipment straps too, so are maker markings really the only way? "Just assume postwar" (or fake) is a good rule of thumb I use a lot on items I'm not familiar with but if we apply that same logic too much we get lazy, don't learn anything, and we would be missing out on a lot of potentially rare and original stuff.

http://www.latewar.com/html/byfskm.htm
For example this would be fake to most people since its simply abnormal, but man what a piece to walk away from because someone just calls it fake instead of digging deep and learning more about it. One of my biggest fears is walking away from something super rare because I have no clue how to authenticate it, because who knows where something may pop up one day? Some of the best finds on this forum were at yard sales and dusty corners of antique malls for dirt cheap.

 

[swjXE]

I found the list of WW2 German Secret Codes and RME wasn't on it, I guess it's an abbreviation of the name of a manufacturer, like the ones Slash posted earlier in this thread that were in upper case letters and not one of the secret codes at all.