Thanks Steve, this could be an interesting topic if a pattern could be developed.

I measured the blades immediately next to the guard, where they were narrowed by the choil. Both of my Orlando carbon-blade 14s, one '69-70, one teethed 1973 were right at 1 1/8" give or take a hair. But both blades were about 1 1/4" just beyond the cutout choil. Did you measure your blades at the guard?

The Solingen 14, assume '67-'68 (though blade could have been forged earlier), measured 1"+ at the guard, and 1 3/16 immediately after the end of the choil. Given the handfinished nature of these blades some variation is expected. But I would think that 1/8th inch is outside of normal variation.

Focusing on Viet era model 14s, what I wish is that we had fairly exact measurements right at the guard for a number of Orlando blades and as many solingen blades as we could get.

I have a back-of-the-brain impression that earlier Solingens may have had a slimmer blade than the time-equivilent Orlando carbons... but I wonder if that was true across the span of time that Solingen 14s were made, or if the Solingen blades got "wider" with time.

For that matter, I also wonder if the Orlando blade got wider (at the guard) over time... These questions need help and data from guys with serious numbers in their collections, with a decent idea of date of provenence.

Perhaps this would make a good separate topic. Thanks for your comments and input.