hi all , received a fire dress bayo in post today, unmarked example in great condition but the blade has what can only be described as great crossgraining on it ? never come accross this in my short bayonet collecting ecperiences ,i'll post some pics after but they are off a mobile so may not be clear enough, but what do you think were some blades crossgrained???? thanks in advance

not a good pic as i thought but here it is

Will,

A terrible picture.

Some bayonet blades that are unplated will show crossgraining as this is a step in the polishing process. Plated bayonet blades will almost always have the crossgraining polished out before plating. Is your blade unplated polished steel?

sorry about the pic i'll have another go in a minute i have compared it to my wkc and the dimensions are identical in every way apart from the wkc is plated but this unmarked blade is almost as bright almost!!!, are there ways of finding out the specific makers of unmarked bayos ? i have tried looking through past threads for info but have not managed to find much info , thanks for your reply i'll get some pics up in a bit

had another go orpo , getting better lol

why would it not have been plated? thanks again
will.

hi, i'm the wife, tried a different camera so hopefully better pics!

tried again for pic of the crossgrain!

quote:

Originally posted by will jones:
why would it not have been plated? thanks again
will.

It looks like an unplated blade to me. Some blades were plated and some were not. Price differences, shortage of materials, etc can all determine why a maker decided to use plating or not. I think it is proper.

Billy is the resident expert on FW bayonets so perhaps he will see this thread and chime in. I see no problem with your bayonet though.

thanks orpo , looking forward to any info , the hilt ,handle looks OFFSET! it is all tight though, all looks together forever, i'm really pleased with it , even in the uk with the hyper prices , this was 35pounds all in )

This is a so called natural finish fire bayonet by WKC. Quite uncommon but not unheard of.

Billy,

killer piece, and new to me. I only have a dozen or so of the FW'S I may keep a look out for one of thoses.

steve.

Wow, that's a nice piece indeed Billy I love it. There's always something new to learn in this hobby. I have never heard of these prior to the thread.

JAN

Very nice, Billy.. I never knew that unplated blades could looks so nice and even exist on these dress bayos.

If it were an Eickhorn, I would be really jealous.



John