Henkel Firemens Dress Bayonet - is it Carl or Karl

**josephc** · 02-06-2013, 02:23 AM

Picked up this german firemens dress bayonet, scabbard and frog. The bayonets tip is a little dulled but overall nice condition. The blade is marked KARL HENKEL BIELEFELD and the frog is marked CARL HENKEL BIELEFELD. C or K for first letter? The blade also says SOLINGEN. No dates; how does one estimate the age of this style bayonet?

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 02-06-2013 02:23 AM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**Billy G** · 02-06-2013, 04:03 AM

Joseph,

What you have is a Third Reich era fireman's dress bayonet with the 25 cm blade. The blade is marked by a distributor or retail seller of equipment. The company Carl Henkel, Bielefeld, still exists & still sells fire department ephemera.

With respect to our question as to whether the name is Karl or Carl, I believe it was spelled Carl on nearly every bayonet I've seen by Henkel. When I started collecting these bayonets about 12 years ago, I noticed that every once in a while I found one marked Karl, these were all earlier type production so I believe they were an initial run that may or may not have misspelled the name. Interesting too that the occasional distributor marked frog also uses Carl.

The bayonet you show with Karl Henkel name & distributor marked frog is quite scarce & should bring a small premium to collectors of these bayonets as well as collectors of dress bayonets in general.

**Eric Zentner** · 02-06-2013, 05:01 AM

Well said Billy.Would brown frog be for LS?
Mine is black. Sorry old pic..

Henkel Firemens Dress Bayonet - is it Carl or Karl

Eric

**josephc** · 02-07-2013, 03:11 AM

by Eric Zentner

Well said Billy.Would brown frog be for LS?
Mine is black. Sorry old pic..

Eric

What does LS stand for?

**sunsetIE** · 02-07-2013, 03:22 AM

by josephc

What does LS stand for?

Luftschutz i would assume

**Billy G** · 02-07-2013, 03:45 AM

Thanks Eric. I'm pretty sure brown frogs, even on fireman's bayonets, were for Luftwaffe personnel. Many fireman's bayonets are found with brown frogs, many more IMHO, that could be explained by vet or collector swaps. The popular theory is that those brown frog bayonets were used by Luftwaffe personnel manning airport fire units. No, I've got nothing period to back it up but it's plausible & no ones come up with a better idea that I'm aware of.

With respect to service sidearms for Luftschutz personnel, I can't say. Although I know there was some overlapping in the duties of the Feuerwehr/Feuerloschpolizei & the Luftschutz, I'm unaware that Luftschutz personnel ever wore Feuerwehr bayonets. Is there any documentation of this?