UBB.threads Forums Edged Weapons The BCN Bayonet Forum very nearly matching asw43

Here is a pic of my asw 43 non matching, blade is marked 43 asw no- 0123 with letter block n the scabbard is marked 43 asw no- 0119 letter block n , that is 4 away , i suppose what i'm asking is was this likely to have come from the factory like this , knowing the germans attention to detail this seems unlikely , but it also seems unlikely out of the 15 million bayos that were produced these 2 star crossed lovers from the same assembly line would be reunited ???

Maybe the owners were in the same unit and the bayo's got mixed up during the war? Or possibly during surrender?

The piece looks nice, the picture is little blurry, is there same letter on both part? in 43asw it should be matched probably.4 numbers is too far to accept by control.best regards,Andy

Thanks andy the pic is blurry , tried an overall pic but these are taken from a mobile phone (cell to our american cousins lol)i am buying another slr camera this weekend! then i will post pics of all my pieces , i have a few non matched because i believe in quality as well as matching , the scabbard is letter n as is the blade , frog is dated 1940 hans deuter augsburg (still in existence i believe, producing tarpaulins)

as feared this pic is also crap! does not do the blade justice at all and the tiger striped graining in the handles is non existant !

Interestingly I also have a similar one from the same maker. Look like Eickhorn was too busy in manufacturing bayonets at the time

Cheers,

Keith

Keith,
Thats an outstanding bayonet from what I can see, superb condition and so rare to find them in this unissued condition. Any chance of seeing the whole ensemble.

While I would agree that bayonets should have matching numbers as a rule, sometimes I think it's more of a "judgment call". To add to the mix, here is a late '43 H�rster (asw) one number apart. Which in the case of this particular bayonet being almost certainly a case where the "5" and "6" were accidentally paired up as a result of factory error (because of their very similar appearance). Also having one or two other time period/maker mismatched bayonets that seem to have paired up at or very near when they were made with very close same letter block numbers. FP

Degans....I nearly put my thumb through my screen trying to squash your bloody atavar!!!

Degens,

Thank you for the kind words, here's the full picture of the bayonet. This bayonet was bought at eBay at a pretty low price. Strange that no one was interested.

Sorry I meant to say Horster in my last message, but I was reading another post about the Eickhorn squirrels when I type the message !

Happy collecting.

Keith

While I certainly agree with FP that bayonets should have matching numbers as a rule, but it seems that Horster did came out with a number of factory mismatch pieces. I know that some collectors disagree with this theory, but here is another in my collection.

This is a double dated 43/44 that has a wider spread, serial 024 on blade and 0044 on scabbard. As with most double dated 'u' series Horsters, this one looks unissued as well.

Cheers,

Keith

Hello, dont believe that is real so high differences, as many sgx bayonets are found matched, and were made on end of production, the FP piece is probably real missmatch but the other not, it could be changed by unit, or by GI who brought it back. the majority of 43/44 pieces are matched, on the bayonet is missing the first digit, it must be not zero there?best regards,Andy

Some nice mismatches, i guess we will never be sure , the truth lost to history ! as i have prviously stated i dont mind a mis match if its a really nice example(and the right price), a can of worms may be opened with this comment but here goes , i have read many threads over the years on various forums completely discounting mis matches as crap or worthlessQ! BUT am i going to find someone here right now that agrees with this ?????? they are still (original)german ww2 items ! and issued/used by the wehrmacht

Hello, i looked to dbase.there is 0020 matching piece with can scabbard, more possible is that someone changed the scabbards. the finish of the parts looks little different too.best regards,Andy

Hello Andy,

Thank you for the input, your dbase is really helpful indeed. Although not a good news to me but it is always nice to learn about the truth.

But on the other hand, I believe that there is no missing digit on the 024 bayonet; this is because I also have two 43/44 asw in my collection in which the bayonet is 379u (scabbard 0379u) & 891u(scabbard 0891u).

Cheers,

Keith

Hello Keith, You have right on this, probably no other zero there. Exist samples that have no first digit in the lower range. best regards,Andy

Keith,
Thank you for showing that choice Horster, you have a great eye for quality and the photography is not too shabby either . I wondered if the grip plates were two different types of wood?.

@Terry....I still find myself trying to squish the little buggah, and I uploaded it!.

Degens,

Apologise for delay in response as I was out of town. Thanks for the comments on my photos.

I don't know much about wood (Japanese cars as well - as they all look the same to me )but I do think that the two slabs are made of different kinds of wood. But I am not worry because some Horster 98Ks were made this way.

Cheers,

Keith

Keith, yes totally acceptable and many of the bayonets in collections today, this detail is sometimes not quite so evident as it is on your superb example.
To me it adds further appeal

Hello, its nice nutwood, probably the darked is from softer part of the tree.best regards,Andy
PS it was probably stored for long time out of sun light,as many from same period are darkened to dark brown color