I was satisfied with my seemingly perfect Eick fire bayonet. That lasted weeks, maybe a month. Then I realized there were long & short models & these curious, vicious looking sawbacks. The prices on the sawbacks, then as now, were significantly higher than the plain blades examples. And so it was that I decided to obtain an example of long & short models in both plain & sawback blade.
Jeff Slaker, also known as Colorado, an old GD'er had some fire bayonets he was unloading, most had frogs, some even had knots & all were priced most fairly. It was from Jeff that I picked up my first sawback, a '35-'41 Eickhorn long model. Jeff actually provided me with a number of nice examples over the years & I owe him & many others a debt of thanks.
This piece typified the differenced between the early era Eickhorns & later production pieces. The weight was lighter overall & the plating on the pommels & crossguards was thinner, as you can see from the slight bubbling in this pic. It was obvious to tell, especially in hand, that the parts used to make these later pieces wasn't as good as some of the others but the quality in construction was still there. While of a later vintage, all parts are so well fitted that it's tough to find fault with it. Additionally, it's sawteeth are frighteningly sharp. The maker's mark was the same as the other plain bladed example I had but it's such a decent mark in & of itself & I hadn't yet had the bright idea to buy at least 1 example of every mark on these bayonets. But that would change.
FW.JPG (81.72 KB, 2164 downloads)
