HEY GUYS

Just picked this early Eickhorn dress bayonet up. IT has no lug on it, but im sure its not a firemans bayo. there is a 31 stamped on the guard, and the scabbard feels and looks anodized. Someone told me this could be an early police dress bayo.Any info would be great.

uc

number

early eickhorn logo

Spencer,

These are perfectly legitimate KS98 variations that all seem to be items of issue. I believe they are probably police issue too. I have one that also has issue property numbers on it but it has the later squirrel with sword logo so they were made over a period of time.

Does it have horn grip plates or is it just the light playing tricks?. Nice find .

Mine has checkered hard rubber grips. They do photograph differently from the shiney plastic grips.

George,
I am interested in opinions as to when the use of materials other than bakelite or stag was phased out altogether. I dont recall see-ing it used on a bayonet with a 35-41 TM before and most of the ones I have are Weimar with back to back TM's, or the single/double oval 33/34.
Regards

HEY DEGENS

THESE ARE BAKELITE GRIPS FOR SURE. ITS ALSO A REAL MINT PIECE. ANYONE ELSE OUT THERE HAVE ONE THATS CLOSE.

Spencer,

Just two questions on your piece. Is it plated? By some of the rust placements it appears to be, but still o.k. for early as it is they're polinshed steel. They're similar to RFV marked. One of our members Terry has one of those plated. But they are found with the blued anodized scabbards normaly.

Eric Seat has a post down the page the I don't know how to post a link to. The name of the post is "Dress Bayonets Early and one Late one" He has an example there like it, I posted a pic of two myself. Maybe one of our members will post it for me.

Steve.

HEY STEVEN

THE PARTS ARE PLATED.

Degens,

It is hard to say when these other grip materials were changed. I suspect that Eickhorn continued to use hard rubber on these larger bayonets for quite a while. Hard rubber grips must have been called for in specs because you will see them on the unplated RFV marked KS98 by different makers, including Eickhorn. All these Zollschutz KS98 grips have drain holes, T/O slots in the pommels, and blued steel scabbards. They are also larger overall and have 26cm blades instead of 25cm ones.

Here is another unplated KS98 of this type made by Eickhorn. This one has a T slot instead of a T/O slot and no drain holes in the hard rubber grips. These only fit on the Kar.98a so I believe them to be police issue.

George

Here is an overall view of three Eickhorn bayonets of this type. Two without pommel slots or press studs and one with. The one in the middle is the T slot bayonet (not a RFV) I show the pommel of above.

The two bayonets with solid pommels have the Eickhorn squirrel within an oval mark and the later squirrel with a sword mark. Otherwise, they are identical to the one in the center and have the same hard checkered hard rubber grips.

Here is a closer view of the grips and markings.

George,

You have two great pieces. The un-plated Eick with the sword and the earlier blade marked STA/RHB, unknown to me. My assumption at first glance would be a form of railway police. The motif for the time looks right on the stamp dies. Since I didn't know how to do a link from the same site, I'll just add the pics. The first two are solid pommel, I'm at odds with the one in the middle, the third shows two polished, the "G" marked is a solid pommel, the "27" marked is a T-slot push button.

Steve.

pic 2

pic 3

Steve,

I'm like a giddy schoolgirl everytime I see those pieces!

Steve,

I have a couple more of these unplated steel bayonets and almost all are obviously items of issue with property markings and armorer inventory numbers. I have a couple with large two or three digit serial numbers on the blade ricasso (all from the same die stamps) with no other organizational markings. I also have one marked G4 on the ricasso like your G15 marking, so both from the same organization no doubt.

The ST.A / RHB." marking was a puzzlement to me until I located a similar Imperial Prussian marking indicating the Militärische Strafanstalten (Military Prisons). So, it appears that this particular bayonet may have been utilized by Prison Police.

I believe that most (if not all) of this style of KS98 bayonet were utilized by various law enforcement agencies (that includes the distinctive RFV ones). Thanks for showing yours.

George