Today's Yardsale Find: Nationalist Chinese M1 Garand Bayonet

[Aragorn243]

Huge neighborhood yard sale today in nearby town. walked through the entire thing without seeing a single item of military origin and I'm talking 50+ homes. Got in the car to hit a few outliers and at the last place in the town spotted four bayonets. A very common Swiss, a Polish 1958, a fantasy AK and what was labeled a US M1 Garand. Price was right so I asked to see it and it isn't a US bayonet. Markings were unfamiliar to me and weren't in any of my guides. I suspected either South Korea or Taiwan (Nationalist China). Came home, researched it, discovered it was Nationalist Chinese and went back and made an offer on it. Metal is in great condition, looks unissued but the one grip has a ding in it. Unfortunately, the scabbard, while also Nationalist Chinese, has had its markings scrubbed off. Various sources on the web list it as one of the more difficult variants to locate in the US and listings (and prices) on recent ebay sales seem to support that. First I've seen anyway.







Doesn't seem to be a lot of information about them on the web. The 60-6 is rumored to be the date of manufacture but as they are all marked the same, that seems unlikely. Perhaps the date they were initially produced, thus the model number. Some surfaced through the CMP which seems to indicate they were sent to the US with the returned Taiwanese Garands. If anyone has any more or definitive information on them, I'd appreciate hearing it.

Information

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[marysdad]

Good find!

[Lonely Gunny]

This bayonet was made by Lien Chin arsenal in Taiwan.
I recognised that symbol. I will be joining the Taiwanese army soon.

---------- Post added at 11:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:40 PM ----------

Sorry I don't know how to spell their name in English. Wiki doesn't have their English page.

---------- Post added at 11:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:42 PM ----------

The arsenal it's now called 205th armory according to this page http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/T91_assault_rifle

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Good eye strikes again! I assume it is a good eye ,I am starting to think you can smell the good stuff.

[Aragorn243]

They say you make your own luck, I don't know. I do feel lucky in finding some of the things I have for the prices I have this summer. I think it's persistence, being willing to go to that 51'st yard sale and looking closely at what you find. I could have left this one sit, almost did because of the weird markings but I figured I'd check it out. I really had the bayonet "bug" and like I said, the price wasn't bad, it was very good for a legit US M1 bayonet. I drove the 8 miles home, spent half an hour on the net while I ate lunch, thought it over, talked about it in a way that got the wife's tentative approval (that always helps) and then drove the 8 miles back.

I went to a flea market yesterday and while I made no purchases, I did discover something I may check into next Sunday. Weird rifle on the wall. It looked like a Steyr Manlicher but had odd markings. I ask the seller what it was and he just said some German nation, he didn't know. I suggested Hungary because that was my guess and they made turn bolt Manlichers. Never got to haggling about price as I didn't know what it was. Turns out it's a Dutch Manlicher and if the price is right, I may bring it home. It's missing it's upper hand guard but my books say that's pretty common. Many never had it and a lot of others were tossed out. Only trouble is, I did ask him a price on something else he had and the price was way out of line in my opinion so my expectations aren't real high.

Second drawback is the bayonet. It's another $150+ bayonet to try to track down.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Quote of the day from my employeer (76 years of age self made and workes harder/longer each day than those of us he employees) "The harder you work, the luckier you get". I think it applies to your success.

[alex124485]

score!!! i have a UFH greek return bayonet, this one is neat! i need to go to more garage sales!

[A square 10]

great find , garage sales here dont have that kind of finds , i would see that as an inspiration to expand my collection to include the foreign M1s

[LesterH]

I have one of these Taiwanese Garand bayonets with an International Havester scabbard . same as the one in the photo above. I found it in a dealers spares box for £35.00.
In my view they are one of the best finished Garand bayonets.