Latest Flea Market Pickup German S98

About three weeks ago, my wife and I went to a flea market we like to go to but isn't all that close. So we get there once every few months. Spotted a beat up butcher bayonet in a terrible looking chromed scabbard. Asked him what he was asking, price wasn't terrible if it were a sawback but figured slim chance of that. Asked to see it and sure enough, it is a sawback. Watching these things sell for over $200 on ebay over and over I'm impressed just to be holding one. I look it over, the saw is dull, the entire bayonet is chromed along with the scabbard which is also badly pitted. Blade doesn't look too bad but it's been ground a bit at the logo portion at least. Grips are home made, look like crap, are split and don't fit and are held on by heavily oxidized aluminum rivets that are splitting.

I offer the guy less, he said he got an offer for that two weeks prior and didn't accept it then. I left, walked around a bit and went back. Looked at it again, very carefully, I just tell him the condition is just so bad I don't know. He cuts some off the price, I offer even less, he counters and says it's only $5 but I threw that right back at him. We talked for another ten minutes and he hands it to me and gives it to me for my early low offer of $60.

I figure it will give me something to do. I'll never pay $200 for one and I might get something useable out of it.

So yes I cleaned it, I polished it, I refinished it and I put new grips on it but it's mine, it looks a heck of a lot better than it did when I got it.

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I'm probably not done with the scabbard. Like to get it cleaned up a bit more. Bayonet I'm done with for now. I left the chrome on the blade but took it off everything else. The top of the blade has the acceptance marks on it but they didn't come out in the photo. The chrome on the blade doesn't look bad, doesn't appear to be pitted heavily underneath like everything else was. The lock did not work when I got it but a bit of elbow grease and penetration oil got that loosened up. The saw remains sharp enough to cut through a 2x4.

The grips came from Poland, aren't a perfect fit but not bad. Part of that was my fault. They needed some hand fitting and I did not line up the holes before deciding which end to file. I picked the wrong end. Scabbard number matches the bayonet.

Nice score!!

Great find! Is it supposed to havea muzzle shield along the top of the tang?

Flash guards were added later in production after the problem was discovered. There are variations with and without of quite a few different types.

What was the problem necessitating a shield??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WarPig1976

What was the problem necessitating a shield??

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My understanding is that the muzzle blast will eventually blow the scales off.

That's what I always heard but as the muzzle is forward of the wood, I expect it may be a concern more for heat than muzzle blast. These bayonets along with the later K98 bayonets are pretty tight to the barrel. The shield probably distributes the heat and reflects it away from the wood. Under normal conditions, the rifle is never fired often enough to cause a problem but in the trenches in heavy combat, they were probably bursting into flames.

Heat was not a problem. The flashguard is unnecessary when used with the long Gew98, as said above, the muzzle was forward of the bayonet's crossguard well away from the grips. The same can be said of the Kar98k developed and used after 1933. Flashguards were fitted to all new production bayonets beginning in 1915. The guards were added to earlier standard bayonets - the Sg98, Sg98/05 and Sg84/98 - by unit armorers also starting in 1915.

The need for the flashguard came when the bayonet was fixed to the Kar98a whose bayonet lug was only about one inch back from the muzzle causing severe damage to the bayonet grips, often blasting the wooden grips off and occasionally charring them. Earlier bayonets without the guard that were on issue to units not using the 98a did not have them installed by unit armorers. After the 98a was withdrawn from front line service in the 1930s the flashguard was no longer necessary but Germany continued to make the standard issue Sg84/98 Type III bayonet with the guard through the end of WW2 in 1945 since it was felt that it avoided damage from rough treatment while being worn under rough conditions of usage.