Enfield number 5 Mk 1 Bayonet help

[Aragorn243]

Yep, that's the one I was talking about. I have been watching ebay for close to a year and a half now. They just keep going up and up. I have not seen one at a show in a year either. The last one I saw was one year ago this weekend and was being sold with the rifle only. Tried to make a deal with him but he wouldn't budge.

I finished up the repro last night and I'm happy with it. As happy as you can with a repro I guess. It fits perfectly after the bit of fine tuning I made and looks correct. I'm going to be doing a presentation on WWI and WWII rifles in two months and this was the only bayonet I was missing for the rifles I have. I paid less for my rifle than a lot of these bayonets are going for.

[old-smithy]

The interstign thing here is that it is the rifle guys who have forced the price up to what it is, when i started seriously i coudl have got a MkI for less than people now pay for the MkII but that was way out of my $100 limit at the time.

---------- Post added at 07:12 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:10 AM ----------

Funny it is you rifle collectors that have forced the price to where it is now, the MkI's were the price the MkII's are now a few years ago. Heaven help that us bayonet collecotrs start wanting a bayonet mount for each of our blades! anyone have a 3 or 4 hundred K98's, 1888's and SMLE's going cheap?

[LesterH]

That is a very fair comment about the rifle guys putting the price of bayonets up. I use to be able to go to arms fairs at Bisley and get bayonets for nearly half price than at Militaria shows. I could get British 1907 bayonets in excellent condition for about £35.00. Now they want £75.00! It seems the live fire dealers did not want to make much money on bayonets a few years ago.
I do have a few D/A rifles to show how bayonets fit etc. Most of my collection is hanging on the picture rail of the living room if the scabbards have studs. Other than that the rest are on display in old wooden wine racks. My spares and duplicates live in a large ammo box.
Can only have D/A guns, I don't have a firearms licence!
My militaria collecting started when I was 18 years old and bought a rough K98 bayonet for £3.00 ,with no scabbard, at a church jumble sale. Then spent 22 years+ looking for a spare scabbard. Bought a lot of old toot along the way! Now fills two rooms.
You know what it's like! Lester

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Now Now lets not cast stones. I have seen some of your bayonet collection photos posted here. I for one will not toss any accusations in the direction of those of you here who collect only pointy ends as I appreciate your paticular expertice. That said. Quit hoarding those bayonets for my No 5s.

[peregrinvs]

or find someone interested in trading for my 1918 marked 1917 US Enfiled bayonet.

Out of interest, what are they currently worth? I have one I bought about 10 years ago. No plans to sell - just curious.
Thanks,
Mark

[Aragorn243]

Out of interest, what are they currently worth? I have one I bought about 10 years ago. No plans to sell - just curious.
Thanks,
Mark

No idea. The 1917 marked ones seem to go for anywhere between $125 and $175, the Vietnam era seem to go for more than that. I haven't seen a 1918 marked one for sale.

As for rifle guys driving up the prices, probably to a small degree but I don't see them driving the prices up this high. Few rifle guys are interested in paying more for the bayonet than they paid for the rifle. Add into that the various markings and condition factors and I'm willing to bet that it is serious hardcore bayonet collectors that are driving up these specific prices. They were bringing about $100 16 months ago, then hit $160 about a year ago and now we seem to be in the $250-$375 range.

Case in point the 1917 bayonets. As a casual collector, I see no reason at all why a Vietnam era bayonet is bringing more than the original WWI issue. They are not as well made, they have the plastic grips, etc. Numbers may be fewer, I don't know but I expect it is guys who served in Vietnam that remember them that are driving up prices on that specific model.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

I think e-bay is the main culprit in driving up prices. Seems a bit a bit of a double edge bayonet (if you will allow a pun). Easy access to a world wide market for objects that in the not to distant past you had to devote some effort to find. The Arisaka,k98,Garand etc.. bayonets are all climbing in price as well. I for one will not pay close to or above rifle prices for a bayonet even though I concider some of my rifles incomplete without them. Perhaps perseverance will pay off in my search for those I am missing.

[Aragorn243]

I think e-bay is the main culprit in driving up prices.

It is a distinct possibility although in other areas, I've found ebay to lower prices on some items. Books for example. I can generally with patience get books for significantly less on ebay than anywhere else other than a yard sale. Most antique dealers I've talked with despise ebay although they have begun to embrace it for use themselves. Ebay was again driving the prices lower than they were selling in their little shops. More people are able to get rid of things they may otherwise just let sit.

I have bought a few bayonets off ebay, nothing fancy but I have noticed that the better ones seem to sell extremely well. More than I'm interested in paying and I doubt that there are that many rifle collectors trying to get some of those more obscure types.

The Jungle Carbine may simply be the perfect storm. It is a very popular rifle to begin with, so much so that they made reproductions of it out of perfectly serviceable No 4's. The rifle just has "the look" that guys seem to want. The bayonet has "the look" as well and again, highly reproduced for that reason. Add to it that the bayonets were kept in service on another rifle after the No 5 was removed from service and that some were also converted to another type handle and the numbers have been both reduced and separated from the original rifle. Now the final piece being the decision by the British government to destroy stocks on hand rather than sell them and all those thousands of bayonets used for the secondary rifle are gone for good.

[gew8805]

Who knows who drives the prices up? 20 years ago you could buy a No. 5 bayonet easily for $25 - $35 when they were available, about the same as you paid for a US M1905 bayo for the '03 Springfield. Of course at that time you could find M1917 and P13 bayonets literally by the bucketful at any flea market and you didn't even consider paying more than $12 for them IF they had the scabbard. Without scabbards they sold for no more than $9. P07 bayonets went for the same.

Time marches on.....

[LesterH]

Hooked on History. I am not hording bayonets. They are all different. It's not totally my fault I ended up with three No5 bayonets. I put the word out I was looking for a nice No5 to go on the end of my Stirling SMG and three came up at once!