UBB.threads Forums Edged Weapons The BCN Bayonet Forum Fireman's bayo getting rarer by the second!!

At the SoS, an unusually marked long fire bayonet was observed.
First noticed by Terry Kissinger and priced to him for $250.00, he came back to our table and told me about it. We both agreed the price was too high.
I was curious to see it, and walked down to the dealer's table. I asked him if it was ok to take a picture as I hadn't seen this particular marking before. He gave his permission for the pictures, and I asked him the price. "$350.00" he said, "That's a rare mark".
A bit later, another KS98 collector came by our table as Terry and I were talking about it. He then went down the aisle to look at it. When he asked the price, the dealer said "$450.00". "A couple of knowledgeable collectors have been here taking pictures of it, and it's really rare".
We all had a good laugh over the rocketing price of this bayonet.

Here is the picture I took of the blade marking. There was no maker's logo. My apologies for the out of focus picture.
The lettering is F SchP. (I think the last letter is P). The double swastika on the shield is identical to the Latvian Legion collar patch. I will leave comments on the origin (or originality) of this piece to others more knowledgeable than I. Hopefully, Terry will join in with his observations.
The price on this went up faster than a speeding bullet - faster than gas prices - faster than ????
Billy G, you should jump on this. If you hurry, you may still be able to grab it for under a grand!!

"The double swastika on the shield is identical to the Latvian Legion collar patch."

Denny that is a common mistaken identification due to a early erroneous written statement by Angolia in his SS cloth reference book.
Over the years it has been found out that the emblem as used on the collar tab is really for a temporary posting to a concentration camp!
What it's doing on a blade of a bayo is really a mystery!!,, that I hope someone can solve as I also have this emblem on something..

Denny,

Interesting markings to be sure, thanks for sharing them. When dealing with something like this, I'm inclined (possibly too fast) to discount a stamping that's very unusual & incorporating a swaz.

Regarding the FSchP., I'm presuming that's for Feuerschutzpolizei. Do you remember if the scabbard &/or frog were also marked? Again, maybe I'm being too rash in discounting stampings but it's just too easy for disreputable people to whip out a die set & hammer. The ones I just get all soft over are the FW Berlin pieces we've seen several times & the Berlin Schulerwerke (sp?) pommel marked pieces. We've seen them before & they're all consistent as well as being well done. This one? Just don't know but I'll say the floating scale of pricing is really something that would make me pass just on principle.

Gaspare, Billy and Rich,
Thanks for your comments.
G - Actually, I assumed the marking to be Latvian Legion from pictures and statement from Littlejohn's Foreign Legions of the Third Reich, Vol. 4.
Billy - I don't believe the scabbard had any markings and there was no frog.
Rich & Billy - The greed was a thing to behold!

Whether it was real or not it was one of the funniest things that has happen to me in a long time. As far as I know the dealer still had it Sat. After it had reached $450 another collector checked on it to see if the price would go higher, but the dealer held firm at $450 . I think my lower jaw hit the floor after he quoted me a price of 350 on the second pass. All I could do is laugh when it hit 450.

I checked the scabbard and there were no markings on it.

Too funny! All the people looking at it and taking pictures must have prodded the dealer to continue to raise prices. I guess he did not take the hint that nobody wanted to buy it at any of those prices.

It looks like the swastika and shield have been double struck to me. I wonder if this "rare" marking is simply poorly applied. When is the big question.

Denny

Thanks for sharing this story from the SOS. Your correct, IMO it apparently was a greed driven price. I wonder what this "dealer" was thinking when he was going home with this bayonet still in his inventory.

I don't know anything about the marking, but enjoyed your story.

Joe

I set up at the O.G.C.A. show in Wilmington, OH this weekend. Saw several GDC & BCN members.
I also saw the FW bayonet (and the owner) that was the subject of this thread. It now bears a large tag announcing it as coming from a Latvian Fire School. Unfortunately there was no price on the tag - and I didn't ask.

Great followup Denny, I'm surprised there's no issue numbers on it by now. Next he'll be advertising the bayonet as being bestowed by Himmler himself.

We may get to see it at the next SOS show.