Bayonet marking?

[DaveN]

I have seen this mark in my travels and searched high and low and came up croppers. I'm not even sure what bayonet it is? I thought it was a German WWI but the handle is different from the pictures in my books. What the heck is it? The mark I'm talking about is the 2 guys holding hands? Looks like the S84/98 German? I looked closer with better light and the handle looks exactly like the German WWI bayo. Am I right , who is the maker and can I get the wood handles for it?

Information

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[browningautorifle]

Go to Carl Smith's site and you shall find all. BAyonet Collection Presentation Commonly known as the butcher bayonet. Yes, Geman. Maybe 98/05.

[gsimmons]

J A Henckel made the bayonet

[shippingsteel]

Your bayonet is a German S98/05 'butcher' that was commonly used in WW1. It is 'double maker' marked, once by the producer, once by the finisher/retailer.
The L/H ricasso shows the maker mark Act. Ges. (short for Actiengesellschaft) Vorm. over Frister & Rossman, Berlin - so read Frister & Rossman, maker.
On the R/H ricasso is stamped the 'twins' symbol of the maker J.A. Henkels Zwillingswerk of Solingen, who probably finished and retailed the end product.

[DaveN]

Thank you all very much. I had looked up bayonet makers(German) and on what little I could read on the blade deduced Frister & Rossman but had not got to the 2nd part. Thanks again for the info. What is a good source for handles as the gentleman that has it and is either going to make his own or throw it away? He is as evidence of my pictures, partially got the blade done and does this as a hobby.

[old-smithy]

You can get repro grips or buy a turkish cut down and use the ones from that as the 98/05 is worth more than the turked one

[gew8805]

As said above, the bayonet is an Imperial German Sg98/05 bayonet. It appears to be a battlefield recovery and as such it had a unique collectability. Believe it or not, many WW1 collectors will pay a premium for dug or surface recovered items with bayonets being near the top of the list. Rifles and helmets are the two items that are above bayonets in desirability on the list of popular recovered items. That being said, the gentleman, by removing the brown oxidation and pitting, has taken this one from that field and turned it into a less than fair condition bayonet in the general bayonet collection area. This one was a good one since it was probably recovered only a few years after the War, say in the late 1920s or early 1930s. You can find a Turkish cut down 98/05 and use the grips from it but do be aware that the grips are not always totally interchangeable and will require fitting but is fairly simple and easily done if required. The "Zweilingswerk" marking is scarce but not rare, it does make it slightly more desirable.

[old-smithy]

Go to Carl Smith's site and you shall find all. [.

Wish it did contain all ;-) and the smith is from the fact that when i started all this many years ago I lived in an Sld Smithy - Black Smiths Shop, in a small Scottish village (converted to a house but the hearth was still in an outbuilding.) I took old smithy as a company and web name, and now many only know be as oldsmithy, keeps me anonomous lol

[DaveN]

g....5, thanks I just got your reply and told my friend and he said ....well ...What can I do now?
nothing but carry on with a restoration of a bayonet that was going to be put in the trash un till he picked it up for $5. But I learned a valuable lesson.

[RobSmith]

Yup, somebody took a perfectly good dug up bayonet and proceeded to attack it with a grinder of some sort. Probably reducing it's value by upwards of 80% in the process. What is left of it would make a great bush/utility knife though, it IS good German steel after all.