Featured Am I the only nerd here??

I have recenetly obtained a bayonet for my collection, over 196000 were made, so they are not exactly rare. However, the one that I have just obtained has one very minor difference, and that is seemingly only in its markings.

You will see on the blades the number 1. On the bottom example it is near to the socket, whilst on the upper example it is further along the blade. This was due to a slight over production during WWII.


This upper example is extremely rare, with only 4000 ever being produced, and this is the first and only example that I have ever seen. I certainly never expected to be lucky enough to obtain one!
That extremely small and seemingly insignificant detail has got me cock-a-hoop, even though I have other seemingly identical bayonets. So I wondered, am I the only nerd here on the forum for such small details?

 

You are not. We 'joolies' can go wild over the tiniest assay or maker's mark. And when I say tiniest, I mean smaller than pinhead tiny.

 

Thank you AJ, I feel better already!

 

So often it's all in the details-especially these days where replicas and forgeries are common,even rampant (definitely in militaria).
PS-You run some of yr finds thru Viking Sword Forum and the like ?

 

No, I am not a member of that forum, though I am a member of a couple of others. Nor am I on FB, where there is thriving bayonet section, though I know many of the members from other forums.

 

I've never joined FB either (old & paranoid maybe ?). Seems there's a lot of research info I'd like to tap into on it, perhaps someday ?

 

We're scrutinizing crappy, lightly etched signatures in the cameos thread. Pottery and glass is a whole thing of variations and hard to find markings or makers. The silverwork...furniture... I get excited about various materials used for my cameo collection. If anyone has one of those pressed blood ones...I need it. Also Berlin Iron. That would be cool.

Pretty sure any long-term member here is blessed with a detail focused love of their niche objects.

 

I avoided Facebook for years. But I realized that I was missing a ton of estate sales that were only listed on Facebook marketplace. I am happy I joined. My friends and family know that I never accept friend requests because I never post anything about my life on it. I use it strictly as a tool.

 

No facebook for me ever. My husband has an account so he'll check something about once a year for me but otherwise I just make do with checking public facing pages. Ah well.

 

Jewelry, clothing, etc .. we "do " details! It's all in the details. A lot of makers didn't sign a darned thing and it's only by the details that you can figure out who did what.

 

If you are a nerd , for details...then you are the best kind of nerd !!!

& you fit like a glove.... here !!!

Nice finds !!!


( blade thread worthy...)

 

Thank you Komo, I am beginning to feel much better. I was wondering about my sanity over wanting something so much, just for a single mark. A mark that my others have anyway, just in a slightly different place, only a couple of cm's away.
Thank you all for the replies, much appreciated!

 

we those marks placed by hand......or machine ?

 

Every once in a while, a new perfume bottle will show up at the house & the DH will make his usual comment, "Just what you need, another perfume bottle."

My standard reply is, "I didn't have this one in this color yet".

You are definitely one of us!!!

 

bercrystal, Thankyou.

Komo, I believe that they were made by machine. The blade tapers ever so slighly, and the I marks where the taper begins. This blade was one of 4000 that were over produced in 1942, so it was decided to make them into a different bayonet so as not to waste the blades. This what it was originally intended to look like. So the taper starts much further along the blade. As it happens, most of the type shown below were scrapped anyway!

 

that's a silly looking bayonet....

 

But pointy enough to do the job if needed! They are very rare today, though there are lots of copies, so as ever, Caveat emptor!
Probably an original might cost in the $400+ area.

 

Silly as a bayonet, but a nice esthetic. It is amazing how many weapons are beautiful as well as useful, or even destructive.

 

Hahaaa I told my husband he had a package today and "It's a book? Man, those are so rare. You really just don't have any books. " We have a library instead of a guest room, and his to be read pile in the bedroom is stacked halfway up the wall, a few rows deep.

He laughed and I said "So anyway, come look at these cameos I got today that I definitely never get ..."

Those are small and he likes the artistry, but he teases I'm banned from any more bowls, baskets, or lamps. I only have 7 lamps in the bedroom. It's fine.

 

Well, though I like them AJ, the only two that I personally have that I think could possibly be called beautiful are these two......



and this one, the 1855 Lancaster bayonet.