I picked this up at MAX 2008. It is in my view, an SA dagger that was carried by an instructor assigned to one of the NPEA organizational schools, who was also a member of the SA.  At first glance, I believed that instead of purchasing his own NPEA dagger for wear, it is likely that he simply had the scabbard of his SA dagger painted to conform to acceptible NPEA standards.  However, the dagger itself is manufactured by Max Weyersberg.  NPEA lovers will recognize Weyersberg as one of the rare makers of the NPEA.  The paint is professionally and factory executed, and matches the factory paint seen on NPEAs so perfectly.  This may have been a very early special order piece.  The crossguards are nickel silver, and the reverse lower crossguard is marked NPEA.  Speaking to Ron Weinand, he reminded me that to date, only later war NPEA daggers have surfaced by Weyersberg, and are seen only with the markings of one school.  That, and the lettering is not an exact match of lettering typical of markings found on other NPEAs.  But, this dagger is not typical in any way, and is a very difficult nut to crack.  In summary, this is a piece that is in my opinion 100% originally configured and undoctored, however speculative with respect to its purpose - the manufacturer connection to the later NPEA variants cannot be overlooked.  It would make one very unique addition to any series of NPEA daggers, and is priced very fairly due to the piece's strangeness.