Sten Bayonet - real or repro?

[stencollector]

The sten bayonet is the one bayonet that was so cheaply made, that it is difficult to tell an original from a poor copy. As such, most collectors will only buy them priced as fakes. There were a number on ebay a few years back where the seller claimed he got them from Hercules (or Hero, I can't recall for sure) surplus in TO back in the 60s, so those could be real. But as they say, buy the item, not the story.

IMA did sell fakes with all the stampings on them a decade or so back. Their more recent stuff does not have the stampings.

In the Sten Carbine book, there is a photo of a mk2 with bayonet in the Cdn section, The photo is form the archives if I recall. Interesting evidence that the bayonets made it into Cdn service, or the factory at least.

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[koldt]

The sten bayonet is the one bayonet that was so cheaply made, that it is difficult to tell an original from a poor copy. As such, most collectors will only buy them priced as fakes. There were a number on ebay a few years back where the seller claimed he got them from Hercules (or Hero, I can't recall for sure) surplus in TO back in the 60s, so those could be real. But as they say, buy the item, not the story.

IMA did sell fakes with all the stampings on them a decade or so back. Their more recent stuff does not have the stampings.

In the Sten Carbine book, there is a photo of a mk2 with bayonet in the Cdn section, The photo is form the archives if I recall. Interesting evidence that the bayonets made it into Cdn service, or the factory at least.

Yup, I've seen a number that were obvious fakes made during the last 20 years or so, just having a hard time finding something definitive that shows what a genuine one should look like.

BTW, have you got the PAS4 functioning yet? I've got the light going (that wasn't a huge feat) but still can't figure out the main tube.

Are you going to be back for the Easter show?

[John R.]

Archie Goldstein who was a PRINCE of a guy as was Lou Fine the store manager for that matter had a HUGE OD coloured drum(aircraft part container) FULL of the MkII Sten bayonets for what I thought was an AWFUL price.i.e., $14.95 or thereabouts.

You could ALSO get brand NEW EM2 bayonets and No7 bayonets for $4.95 WITH SCABBARDS and ALL you wanted to boot.So who bought the MkII Sten toad stabbers ? Not I !! Was this a tactical error of the first magnitude? I doubt it.

Cheers,

JR