Chris,
Ron is quite correct with his historically based definition. I will expand on it a bit, and note that in casual conversation collectors often use the phrase to mean specifically Imperial (army) military guns, and will in the same sentence refer to the others as Commercials or name their specific contract variation. It is entirely a matter of context, and who is doing the talking.
In this sense, "Spandau" would be an Imperial variation. These guns' origin, and whether they are a legitimate variation or deliberate forgery, is a different discussion.
BKIW was simply a corporate identity name change for DWM. Except for the letterhead everything remained the same.
Finish quality is usually characteristic of manufacture, and differences can be identified beteween commercial and military production, and different manufacturers. Some of these features tend to follow historical patterns, but are discriptive rather than determinative.
The variation known as a "Sneak" is coming to be understood rather differently from the historical assumption from which the name is derived, and many collectors are eliminating it from their lexicon. The predominate feature of these guns is the absence of a toggle mark.
--Dwight
|