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It looks like a post war refinish - from th eParkerising - but someone has changed the grips, they woudl probably have been the black plastic ones if you want to make it look lik eit was last reworked then I woudl find a bad cut down and swap them over. The original wood grips coudl be used as well, again grab them off a M1 cut down. The blade and markigns look right, and nothing like any of the repro's I've seen. Try US Military Knives Bayonets Machetes there is a lot of info on there but i think you'll find the same.
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Thanks Carl,
was waiting for your expert opinion, have you any pics of a repro to compare? as Shippingsteel has pointed out, would be good if we could give the collector an idea what to look for.
Had a look at the US Military Knives Bayonets Machetes and sent an email to Gary. cheers for the info
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Thanks for all the input received, Had an email from Gary, at:
US Military Knives Bayonets Machetes
(there was a pic to compare but couldn,t copy it) This is what he quoted:
1. The grips are modern made, sold as reproductions for the past several years and quite different in the grooves from the originals. Original grips are quite hard to find and normally very expensive when found, so these not so good replacements are fairly common. They are made in India by the way.
The rest of the bayonet looks OK. They were originally Parkerized and will normally show the difference in color as shown just under the letters SA on yours. Although this MAY be a later arsenal refinish, I suspect that it is the original finish as that color change will normally not appear on a refinish. All marks appear correct. As seen in the photo above, the two pins through the guard are usually quite hard to see, and if you CAN clearly see them, it normally means they have been replaced.
