Just recieved this bayonet in the post today which i won on ebay.
The ebay photos and description gave the impression it was in good used, but not abused condition. Well i opened it and was surprised to see it was much better, while not unissued, i'm sure it hardly saw much front line use, seems to show only 67 years of careless storage wear.
Details....
Bayonet "i" and 5197 b spine marked 41. Rifle release catch also marked 5197 b.
Hilt proofed with straight wing 218

Scabbard "i" over 41 and 5197 b. ball final proffed straight wing 218.

Overall condition is very good, blade unsharpened, scabbard and bayonet retain 95% of blueing with only some surface scratches. The scabbard does have three very, very light and straight dents. These can only just be felt when running a finger over them but look worse in the photos. Not sure what caused these as they are not impact dents, they are minutely pitted so maybe something was left on it and not cleaned for a long time. There is no other damage at all.
The beautiful cavalry frog also came with it and is as supple as it was in 1941, only light surface crazing, the back still retains a high gloss surface finish.
Overall i absolutely love this bayonet!

OK acording to the BCN charts Elite Diamant only made around 42586 in 1941 before stopping production, does anyone know what the company did after this?
I also can't remember seeing any "i" stamped bayonets shown on the forum before how hard are hard are they to find? Who else has any?

Lastly sorry about the quality of the pictures, but hope you enjoy them.

2

3

4

5

Lastly another matching number bayo i picked up. Nothing special but i thought i'd post the pictures so Andy B can add the details to the database.
Does anyone know who made the frog? It is marked cvt 1941.

rich 2

rich 3

rich 4

Nice bayonets. I have got some nice ones from ebay over the years. Good find, Ian.

Thanks very much for reports, unfortunally i have doubts about the blueing, on picture 3 is sharpening visible of the blade in lower part of the picture, and it was blued over, so possible the blueing was repaired. best regards,Andy

Hello Andy and Andy !

This I41 has definitely been sharpenned.
Elite Diamant was a bicycle factory before the war. I don't know what they have been producing after 1941.

yeah the I41 was reworked perhaps postwar since it was sharpened and then blued. regards wiking

but still may i add, a good find elite diamant bicycle story in german use a page translater to translate to english like bablefish

they still exist their webpage

yes i must say it too... the i code bayonet is a rework. It gets a new blueing...dark blue finisch. The original one is dark black... the sharpend edge is blued too.