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1916 Danzig Gew98, 1913 Waffenfabrik Mauser Gew98, & unmarked S1898 "Quillback"

1916 Danzig Gew98, 1913 Waffenfabrik Mauser Gew98, & unmarked S1898 "Quillback"

Hello K98k Forum,

New to this board, but I figured I'd ask for your input regarding these two rifles that have come into my possession along with an S1898 "quillback" bayonet

1916 Danzig Gew 98
From my understanding, 1916 Danzig Gew98s aren't anything too rare, as 1916 was its largest production year. This rifle has been reblued by the German government after the war, replacing the Lange sight with a tangent sight typical of K98ks. I believe these rifles were utilized by the Weimar Reichswehr? Nearly all matching, bolt is mismatched but matches to itself. Bolt handle has been stamped with serial number of receiver, which indicates a force matching by the armory that refurbished this rifle. Bluing is quite deep and good condition overall. Bore is in fair to good condition, not counterbored. The stock hass an odd "A" cartouche near the doughnut.

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1913 Waffenfabrik Mauser Gew98

1913 Waffenfabrik Mauser Gew98
Next up is my Waffenfabrik Mauser Gew98 mdae in 1913. Not sure about their production yield at Oberndorf that year, but finding a pre-WW1 (even if it is just by one year) is a neat find. It's in original (as near as I can tell) finish, with the receiver in the white and bluing on appropriate spots. though bluing is wearing out around the chamber and there is some minor pitting and darkness in said pitting in the areas in the white. Wouldn't be a bad candidate for some light restoration work. Bore is counterbored on this rifle, about an inch from the crown; was this ever done by the Germans, or could this have been a private gunsmith doing this? Overall, bore is in pretty good condition for a 100 year old rifle, with sharp lands and grooves, with some pitting in the grooves but it's not dark. Stock is matching with the rifle, but it seems like there's a somewhat glossy finish on the wood which makes me think that this rifle was restored from a worse condition at some point in its past. All matching rifle as far as I can tell with proof marks.

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Unknown date S1898 "Quillback"

Unknown date S1898 "Quillback"
S1898 "Quillback" bayonet. no maker markings, making me wonder about its vintage. There is no South American markings on the bayonet hilt or ricasso, so could it be a parade bayonet? Blade is still quite sharp, it may have been sharpened. An odd thing about this bayonet is that it fits both my Danzig and Mauser Gew98s, but only on the Danzig does the bayonet locking stud clicks into place.

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Album with much larger resolution pictures than the one in this thread can be found here.
 
Welcome to the forum Syntax, the 1913 MO is a pretty scarce rifle, as is any 1913 dated rifle. Spandau had the highest production, roughly as much as the rest combined, but MO was second but a good distance back.

Can you do right receiver pictures of both your Gewehr98's? Does the Sg98 have a cypher and date on back of the blade? Any acceptance stamps at all?
 
Thank you for the input SimsonSuhl.

I have pictures of the right side of the receivers of the two rifles, as requested:

1913 Waffenfabrik Mauser
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1916 Danzig
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And here's a picture of the only discernable acceptance stamp on the S1898 blade:

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S98

Your S98 was accepted by military inspectors from the small Fraktur inspection stamp on the spine of the blade.
As with some S98/05 and S84/98, this is an un-attributed blade meaning no mfg. mark was applied.
 
What are you curious about? Its shape or style?

Danzig used a unique eagle fireproof, as did Spandau (DWM & MO used the same or similar style as Spandau because the inspectors probably came from Spandau for these facilities, DWM certainly did as per P.08 collectors research); Erfurt had a different style also, they supervised the Suhl makers so they share the same style FP also.

Danzig, out in the wilderness of eastern Germany was always unique, it had unique problems, environmental challenges (weather gave them problems throughout its existence) and an acute skilled labor problem because this part of Germany was rather rural and not very industrialized, which never was a problem for Erfurt (they had heavily industrialized Saxony and Thüringen with its highly skilled towns) or Spandau which was one of the three main industrialized areas of Germany. (Berlin, Saxony and the Ruhr were the sites of the greatest industrialized development in Germany, far surpassing any other country in Europe by the early 1900's, even England couldn't compete in many key industrial sectors, and this was in some measure part of the catalyst for the First World War, - many suggest that the naval race was instrumental, and surely it was, but economic competition played a huge role in the lead up to the war...)

Anyway, Danzig's FP style changed several times, but always was very stylized, this pattern is most common in 1916, starting early around the "c" block or so the wings start to curve more, almost giving a circular pattern the to eagle, this lasts until the x-y blocks of 1916 where it changes to straight wings but still the squat fat eagle with floppy feet. The circular pattern is most pronounced g-x blocks but some overlap as is typical of how rifles are manufactured. All the Arsenals changed eagles slightly over the years, mostly in very subtle ways, but Danzig's seem more radical than others but keeping a more stylized eagle.

Also, I'm curious about the proof mark on my Danzig G98:

Any ideas?
 
Thank you for the info, Simson! For some reason, I thought the marking looked almost like a Polish Eagle, so it made me wonder about its vintage.

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