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Why so many mismatches

Humbarger

Senior Member
Is there a consensus as to why MOST bayonets and scabbards are mismmatched?
It seems an easy thing to keep them matched with the scabbard especially
since the scabbard is secured in the frog which is secured to a belt. The one
scenario that I can imagine is that when a soldier surrendered he just removed
the blade and tossed it in a pile of bayonets leaving the scabbard and frog in his
belt. What are your thoughts?
 
re bayonets

I've been told by several older collectors that back in the seventies when you bought a bayonet at a gun show, if the vendor had more than one available, you matched the nicest blade with the nicest scabbard. No one looked/cared about serial numbers. Anyone else ever hear this ?
 
Mismatches

I personally never heard of it but it sure could make sense as all that stuff was dirt cheap back then. I bought a lot of them from militaria shops and most were already mismatched. So who really knows how many hands these things passed through before we got them? I've been wondering the same thing.
 
The one
scenario that I can imagine is that when a soldier surrendered he just removed
the blade and tossed it in a pile of bayonets leaving the scabbard and frog in his
belt. What are your thoughts?

FWIW, all of the capture pile pics I've seen show bayonets remaining in their scabbards.

Pat
 
This is entriely from memory so my numbers may be off but I just read an article about IMA uncovering a cache of some Swiss helmets. In the article it mentioned that the helmets were not his best find, IMA found a cache of 70,000 "German Mauser" bayonets that they ended up buying them for .29 cents a piece. I bet a lot of those were mismatched and are now on the market.
 
Probably simply a matter of cleaning and import. They were likely stored in grease or rusty, whatever. So they would have guys in warehouses, either at the export or import/receiving end, pulling them, inspecting them, wiping the bayonets and scabbards of dried grease, rust, etc., and then putting them back together. Doing this economically, when these things were selling for $6, would be to pull all the blades and have bayonet piles and scabbard piles. I'm sure those warehouse guys didn't spend much time matching them as most didn't care. I know that I cared back in say, 1981. Collectors cared about that then. Before then, who knows. If you look at those ads they are simply advertised "Mauser 98k bayonets 6.99" , nothing about "matching numbers".
 
There are probably a lot of reasons of why they're mismatched. Damaged from war, lost in war, previous owner changed it with another, etc.
 
Probably simply a matter of cleaning and import. They were likely stored in grease or rusty, whatever. So they would have guys in warehouses, either at the export or import/receiving end, pulling them, inspecting them, wiping the bayonets and scabbards of dried grease, rust, etc., and then putting them back together. Doing this economically, when these things were selling for $6, would be to pull all the blades and have bayonet piles and scabbard piles. I'm sure those warehouse guys didn't spend much time matching them as most didn't care. I know that I cared back in say, 1981. Collectors cared about that then. Before then, who knows. If you look at those ads they are simply advertised "Mauser 98k bayonets 6.99" , nothing about "matching numbers".

Mismatches are basically the "Russian Captures" of bayonets, lol. :laugh:
 
A lot where captured after the war as well. My first K98 bayonet was a Yugoslavian captured one.
 
Man just imagine selling for a few bucks. Amazing what collector status adds to these items these days.
 
It depends on condition where it was captured, i saw period pictures that bayonets and rifles were stacked on one side, the belt with scabbards and ammo pouches on other side of road, so no one would add the proper bayonet to proper scabbard, many GIs probably mixed the items when the scabbard was too cleaned or worried of. They wouldnt look at maker or serial number probably. On east area there were many bayonets melted to iron, only rifles were stored and refurbished in time.
 

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