Property marked Feuershutzpolizie... H&P/K

[Bob in Ohio]

Several Questions to the forum members

1. H&P/K apparently was the distributor... How scarce?
2. It's the short blade (officer), yet is property marked. So then not purchased privately?
3. 16 M.... do we know the city (perhaps Munich?). Anyone keeping a list of known "M" numbers?
4. I know the frog is wrong, and the 5/6 is over struck on the blade, but seems like an interesting one. Thoughts?

[Anderson]

"H&P, K" is the distributor but so far not identified as far as I know. How scarce? Well considering most Faschinenmesser don't have a distributor mark any mark will be less common. I don't think anyone has quantified the dozen or so distributors on rarity. But a nice example to find.
The "16 M" mark is not commonly seen on these, or any other mark indicating like an accountability number. I wouldn't say it never happened, but not usual, as most seem to have been private purchase.

[Bob in Ohio]

Thanks Anderson. A local collector (C. L.) literally had 100's of these and likely the largest known collection. Sadly, Chester recently passed. He once showed me a listing of all the property marked examples he owned.

IIRC I sold him another officers that was property marked (not matched scabbard). Seems to me he mentioned ones that were marked typically belong to a larger fire district, and that most were em/nco longs. Speculating a "large" district perhaps supplied officers a short from their inventory as a perk to the officer. Also, I speculate if the above is correct that the M=Munich. Wishing Chester was still here. A great guy... VN platoon Sgt, heavy combat, purple heart and disabled... RIP!

[AndyB]

Same opinion about distributor, it could be firm / location, so K could be to sample Karlsruhe or other location. Hard to say for 16M could be other explanation as for location.
The frog is a repro postwar made for S84/98 bayonet.

[Billy G]

Chester had the largest collection of fire bayonets by far. We were friends who consulted each other often on such esoteric topics. Chester’s collection absorbed roughly 100 from my own fire bayonet collection, he had so many things I’d never seen before. I miss my friend and our often entertaining talks.

To the specific bayonet, I agree it’s a sort of municipal accountability number. The “M” is indeed likely the city or town of usage but it could be any location with that letter. A private purchase item wouldn’t have an accountability number because it would have been private property owner by the individual fireman.

H&PK is probably a distributor. I’ve never seen the mark on any blade other than a fire bayonet so we can surmise it was a small shop catering to fire personnel. I agree that the K is likely the location. We may find out someday with a tag inside a visor cap or tunic that specifies the names and location.