Two german bayonets,vet buy,clean them?

[Toecutter]

Untouched bayonets from vets son I bought.The k98 combat has matching numbers and a frog.The dress bayonet is nice cond,but the hilt/grip has toned with age.Should I polish the hilt or leave the patina,blade is super.Am going to put some oil on the combat bayonet and scabbard but polishing the dress one dont know,years of patina,leave it alone?

[AZPhil]

Very nice Toecutter.
ffc - Friedrich Abr. Herder und Söhne, 1941/44

I would leave the patina on the Horster dress bayonet. Good deal on the felt insert

I have to ask about the user name.
Toecutter??

Semper Fi
Phil

[Rossi]

Patina is your friend as long as no rust spots don’t polish or try to remove patina in my opinion

[Toecutter]

Thanks guys!Wont clean the bayonet,will leave it alone.Yeah toecutter is an odd name.I got it as a kid from walking creeks barefoot ,like the indians .sharp rocks will cut your feet and toes,but not as bad as you might think,learned my lesson now its mud boots!Iowa is a great place to look for indian artifacts,some of these creeks in the boonies havent seen foot prints for a couple hundred years.A lot of these artifacts are thousands of years old,a great hobby for me,still do it when I get time and its great exercise.I have hundreds of artifacts,arrowheads ,spear points,hide scrapers,tools.Here are a few.I can remember each piece I found,its kind of a little celebration,as it has not been touched by human hands for hundreds or thousands of years.

[RH1941]

Very nice collection

[Rossi]

Great arrowhead collection. I have a small amount of Cherokee Indian on my Mom’s side. Where ever I go it rains so my Mom’s Dad said once we should have named him “dark Cloud”

[Larry C]

Hi TC ... 3 great finds ..and would agree with the other Gents thoughts on leaving the patina alone on the dress bayo. A little soap and water can be used on the blade..and then wiped completely dry. ( Do not run under faucet ) and do not use Simichrome in this case on the blade.

The arrow heads are cool too...the Late Eric Zentner sent me a handful of these and I still have them.
Regards Larry

[Anderson]

Very interesting TC, I can see you got the collecting bug early, as is often the case. Those arrow heads and cutting and scraping tools can also be found in Britain for example from neolithic times and the amazing thing is the shape, design, type of rock used and method of shaping is identical. Cultures with no direct association (or so we believe!) came up with the same ideas.
Nice couple of Bayonets as well, I particularly like the late war combat example, both are in very good condition. The scabbards for dress bayonets often lose their paint, which seems to scratch of easily. Your example seems to have survived unscratched and rust free. Another great ex-vet purchase.

[BlackCat1982]

Nice bayonets Toecutter, leave as is as said.

[real steel]

Going to clean with light soap & water...use "Distilled" water. Buy a gallon jug for 99 cents. Leaves no spotting & is just safer to use on anything than tap water is