UBB.threads Forums Edged Weapons The BCN Bayonet Forum Eatched fire bayonet.

Good afternoon!Not prompt me an original etch or no? With kind regards Mikhail.

1

Mikhail:

Be very careful with these etched fire bayos. I have bought 3 in the past two years and returned all of them. I have seen a half a dozen more for sale on various forums and web sites and like none of them.

In this case, the etch type looks to me like a Pack template. The front bookend looks like something you would see on the Pack No 4 large C31 plane etch. The tip as well as the leaves at the front look like this etch.

Now, Pack typically did not produce etches for other manufacturers, with the noted exception of a Hack marked blade that has a neutral Pack etch.

So, my first and most obvious red flag on this item is why would a Pack etch appear on a Wingen bayonet? Most Pack etches, except for the ones found on Pionier style hilts also use spanner bolts instead of rivets. I don't know if a Pack fire bayo would use rivets (I have seen an original Pack fire etch, but cannot remember which it had).

Based on the fact of Pack not providing etches for other makers alone, I would not be happy with this etch.

My 2 Canadian cents worth.

John

I second John's assessment of the etch being not period mated with this hilt. Add to that the nonperiod rivets & buggered grip plates & something else about the motto & I'd say this piece is likely a rehilt. I've also seen this exact etch template on several other fakes.

I appreciate you're assesment and beleive it true. But why the beat or old hilt? A smoke screen for the fake etch?

My feeling is if you're going to go through the trouble to hump up a piece from scratch, why not use primo parts in the first place? I presume the poor hilt might just be what they had lying around at the time.

Many thanks. With the best Michael.

Just as an aside; wouldn't the correct dedication be "f�r treue dienst" rather than "dienstzeit"? Perhaps a German speaking member could comment on this.