First K98 Bayonet buy!

[sb98]

Thanks for the insight, I have definitely become hung up on the idea of matching numbers and frogs. The bayonet is real right! Haha

If it were me and I was hung up on having a matched set I'd just sell this bayonet and put the money toward a different one. It would cost a little more but it sounds like you'd be a lot happier.

[Anderson]

Matching sets are nice, but are collector driven ideals. Similar to German helmets with decals are valued higher than those without. It's true that a genuine battlefield souvenir a veteran brought home, may be mismatched, simply as scabbards in the field got damaged (typically dents making making drawing the blade difficult). A company armourer may provide a scabbard from the kit of a fallen comrade. Likewise captured German troops being disarmed may simply have had their bayonet removed along with other weapons. Reuniting with a scabbard may have been later and there mismatching could occur. Some bayonets were refurbished post war such as East German bayonets. These ones are often mismatched as in the refurbishment process matching bayonet and scabbard was of low importance. But with the mismatched S84/98 it is a mistake to assume that ALL mismatching occurred post war. We need to get out of our heads the idea that "mismatched" can not be an authentic representation of a battlefield recovered bayonet. This is a idea pushed by bayonet purists and dealers.