Rifle/Bayonet serial numbers

Is there any correlation between SR rifle and bayonet serial numbers??

Dean

Sometime around 10 years ago I was asked by Graf's to assist with getting some 500 Bayonets into the US, pricing them and spread the word. That was the first of two shipments, 500 each brought in two months apart.

Those bayonets had been stored in Bern since their manufacture in the 30's and 40's. None were assigned serial numbers, and all of them were mint. There were both walnut and beech handles, with the majority being walnut.

Bayonets received a serial number when a k31 was issued to a soldier. If that issue bayonet was damaged or lost, a new bayonet was numbered to that rifle and the soldier had his replacement. No bayonets were ever serialized ahead of issue, so..................
You see the ads by various importers, "K31 with Original Issue Bayonet!" Really. Since issue and reissued bayonets were not entered in memoriam in any log books in Bern or anywhere else .......... how, exactly would that importer know if it was an "original issue"? There's no practical way of knowing that at all unless the original soldier were still alive and could attest to that fact. Sad to say that I've seen a few that were sold under that premise that were sparkling new bayonets with a 30's vintage k31 and serialed to that specific rifle.

I look upon those ads with a jaundiced eye.

Originally each rifle would have had a serialized bayonet to match it. When the rifles were imported they were imported separately from the matching bayonet. Some may have found their original match. Some may have been privately imported with matching bayonet. Some may have been faked. The older the rifle the less likely it is to have been faked though. As mentioned plenty of the M1918 bayonet came in unserialized, however I have never seen a unserialized M1889 bayonet for example.

I personally periodically check Ebay to see if I can see a matching serial number to one of the rifles I have. A 1 in 1,200,000 chance basically but I figure its worth looking.

I have a matching 1911 Rifle with bayonet. Only Swiss rifle I purchased with bayonet. Came from a collector, not an importer.