Bursting my Bayonet cherry

[Lidman]

Hi Guys,

This week I picked up my first bayonet.
Although a mismatch between bayo and scabbard, it still displays well, and gives a bit more depth to my small TR helmet collection.
It is stamped E.PACK & S, which I have found represents manufacture by Ernst Pack and Sohn Solingen.
Back side of blade is stamped 39, which I assume stands for 1939 year of manufacture.
I know bugger all about these, so if I have made any false assumptions please feel free to correct me (it's the only way I will learn).
The frog is a bit worse for wear, and I am reluctant to remove the scabbard from it for fear of damaging it.
Any comments and information given would be more than appreciated.

Thanks for looking,
Brad.

[relicz]

Careful Brad, these tend to pile up faster than helmets. 1939 is a correct assumption.

[sandgroper]

It is also very common to have mismatching numbers on the scabbard and bayonet as they were often mixed up. It looks like a nice set mate!

[Larry C]

Nice pick up Lidman...and nothing wrong with having mismatched numbers as Sandgroper said....between the time of battle until present the scabbard could of been replaced....but yet authentic and period. Relicz is correct like a bag of chips you cant have just one. Below is a photo of our K98 code guru...member Bichons collection of K98 bayonets. As his reference can be found on the thread at the top of this forum. Regards Larry

[timothy]

Nice E Pack 84/98 that frog it is in is the harder to find one some say they are later war to conserve leather I have read they were also for the folding shovel carrier. Sleepwalker or Frogprience will let us know. Nice set! timothy

[Lidman]

Careful Brad, these tend to pile up faster than helmets. 1939 is a correct assumption.

I have no doubt that is the case John, i am already looking at getting another one.
A Japanese, or an Australian one next maybe.

Wow Larry, Bichon's collection of K98's is amazing!
Thanks for the reference tip.

Thanks for the comments and info guys.

Brad.

[relicz]

It is definately another addiction Brad. I have another US M1905 waiting for me at the post office for pick up in the morning because I missed the postman this afternoon.

I hate when that happens, the anticipation always drives me somewhat nuts.

[dramos]

What I really love about these bayonets are the varying handle colors. Allows you to have multiple without them all looking the same.

[Lidman]

This one came from Canada, and took about 12 days to get to me (not too bad I suppose).
If I get one from within Oz, the wait is only a couple of days.
Much more bearable, but not as many available

I agree Doug, quite a few variants to be found.
Would the handle grips on mine be made from Bakelite or a kind of plastic?

Brad.

[Frogprince]

Brad, the grips here are Bakelite with a fine textured filler. A very nice find , the first one of these frogs I ever saw was 1944 dated in a small musty old box with a few of its "brothers", so I got one for myself and another for a good friend. Also thinking that it was an effort to conserve leather, I had doubts about putting it on a bayonet because of the small pouch. But my friend wanted his mounted which he did .................. and then a year or two later he wanted it taken off. With my point in relating this piece of information being that he had previously damaged a frog or two so he asked me to help him. Which I did taking weeks to do it very, very, slowly - and from what I've seen with this one I would be very inclined to leave it as is.

Of course later on I found out that it was the M 1942(?) frog for the folding shovel which was a relatively limited issue piece of field equipment. But what was even more interesting IMO was seeing a 1942 dated photo not with infantry soldiers. But brand new folding shovels in Luftwaffe bomber survival kits in (I believe) Russia in the wintertime. Best regards, Fred