Forstmeisters Hirschfänger

[Victory Museum]

Hi,

New acquisition of the Victory Museum:









New informations are welcome !!

Thanks!!

[Victory Museum]

[Victory Museum]

[Anderson]

Interesting. It looks like the bayonet style blade has been shortened.

[gerrit]

Interesting. It looks like the bayonet style blade has been shortened.

Well this is a tough one, i have seen plenty of WKC imperial and interbellum made forestry, hunting and trench daggers/cutlasses.
WKC made numerous different models along the way, but to be honest with this scabbard and with this grip i would expect a different blade and even a bowie style blade would have been possible beside the usual plain blades.
If the bayonet style blade would be used at the factory i would expect a slitly different shape towards the tip.
This looks like a swords blade that has been shortened.
I dont see the usual perfect fit of the guard to the tang and the blood slot does not have the typical shape towards the tip.

All in all an interesting piece with some questions.

Ger

[Frogprince]

Likewise, this one has caused some "head scratching" trying to determine why most of this example (with of course the exception of the blade) conforms to a standard hunting piece. But the blade is quite different. The blade having the wider than average fuller with squared off ends - that has a strong resemblance to those seen on the German M1871 style bayonet. Possibly undelivered blade stock that was re-purposed, or special ordered? Best Regards, Fred

[Anderson]

Yes Fred. I was think M1871 blade as well. Sometime the simple answer is the correct one. Could it not be a case of a previous owner who having this knife with a decorative etched blade wanted to convert it to a practical hunting knife with a heavy duty blade. Or alternatively had it made that way as a new order.

It would be interesting to have a look at the tang.

[Victory Museum]

Likewise, this one has caused some "head scratching" trying to determine why most of this example (with of course the exception of the blade) conforms to a standard hunting piece. But the blade is quite different. The blade having the wider than average fuller with squared off ends - that has a strong resemblance to those seen on the German M1871 style bayonet. Possibly undelivered blade stock that was re-purposed, or special ordered? Best Regards, Fred

M1871/84 vs M1884/98 Bayonet Comparison:

[Frogprince]

With the caveat that it's not an area that I've specialized in, depending on the age and type of the item, for bayonets and some swords it's not uncommon to see fullers run all the way to the point usually because they were shortened at some point. The 71/84 bayonets being just one example where this is seen, the question that could be asked was this originally made as a short blade, or was it shortened as a part of making it into a hunting sidearm? That said, the comparison to a 71/84 is not unreasonable or a bad one with the usual method to try and make some kind of determination - an actual side by side comparison that helps in determining what might not be apparent in photographs. Best Regards, Fred