A Trio Of M1 Garand Bayonets

[odanny]

 

[odanny]

 

[Flash]

This is a repro, but what you describe is proper for an M1 Carbine bayonet. The image at bottom right is what yours should look like from the rear.

Somebody (I forget who) was selling real M-1 Carbine bayonets with scabbards for $29 about ten years ago. I bought one when I got my CMP Carbine and was surprised that it was real. I was expecting a repo but it was government issue.

 

[Esdraelon]

I have one like the top one, and also a German one from WW I. Didn't know they were worth anything, got them at an Army surplus store long time ago for a $1.50 each.

I bought a Mosin Nagant about 10 years ago and paid 150 bucks IIRC. The last gun show I went to had some for sale that weren't as clean and sound as mine, selling for over 900 bucks.

 

[westwall]

Boom, that’s it! That’s exactly it, but is that proper for pre-1945, or would that be Korean era?

M1 Carbines didn't get bayonets until late 1944. So, yes, it is proper. There were seven different makers of the bayonet during WWII, a couple more makers during the 2nd period of manufacture, Imperial, and Conetta, Turner, and I think Bren-Dan as well. They all are basically the same, there are plastic handled bayonets that were made for the Vietnam war. Otherwise they are all the same.

 

[westwall]

View attachment 743113

That handle is later, Vietnam war period. There will be a maker mark on the crossguard that will tell you who made it. The scabbard is a WWII period M8

 

[odanny]

That handle is later, Vietnam war period. There will be a maker mark on the crossguard that will tell you who made it. The scabbard is a WWII period M8

It says K-M4 on one side, and has what looks like an old Chrysler emblem on the other (a star inside a circle)

You really know your bayonets!

 

[westwall]

It says K-M4 on one side, and has what looks like an old Chrysler emblem on the other (a star inside a circle)

You really know your bayonets!

Yours is a South Korean copy, made for their military. Been collecting them for longer than you have been alive!

 

[odanny]

Yours is a South Korean copy, made for their military. Been collecting them for longer than you have been alive!

Ah, well, that's interesting. I wonder if I thought I was buying an original 25 years ago when I picked it up from a fellow reenactor.

 

[westwall]

Ah, well, that's interesting. I wonder if I thought I was buying an original 25 years ago when I picked it up from a fellow reenactor.

Who knows. I am sure there was alcohol involved, so that will skew any memory you thought you had!

 

[1srelluc]

Yours is a South Korean copy, made for their military. Been collecting them for longer than you have been alive!

LOL.....I have a K-M5A1 in my footlocker-o-bayonets. A bunch came in a couple years after the glut of Korean Garands along with the 7" bayonets. The sheaths were marked K-M8A1.

Thing was the 7"ers did not come with sheaths, they showed-up about a year later than that. I dug out a few decent M8 sheaths that way.

BTW.....It's been determined that the M1905 is correct and has not been refinished.

 

[westwall]

LOL.....I have a K-M5A1 in my footlocker-o-bayonets. A bunch came in a couple years after the glut of Korean Garands along with the 7" bayonets. The sheaths were marked K-M8A1.

Thing was the 7"ers did not come with sheaths, they showed-up about a year later than that. I dug out a few decent M8 sheaths that way.

BTW.....It's been determined that the M1905 is correct and has not been refinished.

It should have the exact same finish as the 10" UFH. That grey finish is associated with the 1960's Vietnam war refinishing that was going on. Those 16" bayonets got issued to MP's and guards. They even had to make new scabbards for them.

 

[1srelluc]

It should have the exact same finish as the 10" UFH. That grey finish is associated with the 1960's Vietnam war refinishing that was going on. Those 16" bayonets got issued to MP's and guards. They even had to make new scabbards for them.

Nope, according to the guys over on the US Militaria Forum it's not been refinished.....I'll go with them.

LOL....It must be OK as I've already got a couple of PMs asking if I would sell it.

The sheaths were made in '44 to put a fiberglass training bayonet in but the bayonet did not pan out for some reason. Very few survive.....It as a normal metal/plastic handle wedded to a fiberglass blade just above the fuller.

However the sheaths were already made and they were made the same way (just marked USN MK 1) so the Navy just stuck regular M1905s in them.

 

[westwall]

Nope, according to the guys over on the US Militaria Forum it's not been refinished.....I'll go with them.

LOL....It must be OK as I've already got a couple of PMs asking if I would sell it.

The sheaths were made in '44 to put a fiberglass training bayonet in but the bayonet did not pan out for some reason. Very few survive.....It as a normal metal/plastic handle wedded to a fiberglass blade just above the fuller.

However the sheaths were already made and they were made the same way (just marked USN MK 1) so the Navy just stuck regular M1905s in them.

Based on the color in this picture I disagree with them. If it is darker, and the picture is just washed out, then yeah, it is OK. They are correct on the sheaths. The later sheath I am talking about is the M1917 made by Victory Plastics.

 

[1srelluc]

Based on the color in this picture I disagree with them. If it is darker, and the picture is just washed out, then yeah, it is OK. They are correct on the sheaths. The later sheath I am talking about is the M1917 made by Victory Plastics.

If memory serves they were made for Vietnam era trench gun bayonets with the M5/6/7 type handles. I bought a couple of them many years ago but sold them. Sorta wish I had kept one.

 

[westwall]

If memory serves they were made for Vietnam era trench gun bayonets with the M5/6/7 type handles. I bought a couple of them many years ago but sold them. Sorta wish I had kept one.

That is correct.

 

[DudleySmith]

The wartime 16" plastic-handled M1905s go anywhere from $400 and on up depending on decent condition and manufacturer. There were also wood handled M1905s meant for the M1903 Springfield rifle though both will fit the other.

The 1942 dated 16" bladed Uticas are rare with most of their M1905 production of '42 being cut down to the new standard length of 10" in March of '43. If I had to venture a guess I might push $600.00+ out of it.

Thing is that they are so scarce (in 16" trim) I can't even find one for sale right now.

Well, that surprises me they would be rare; they had them piled in bins when I bought one, and I thought they were over-priced at the time but bought one anyway. I thought the German one would be worth a little more someday because the leather scabbard looked cool but nothing like those prices. I get a lot of offers for the Japanese swords my dad brought back from the Philippines and Japan, but nobody looks twice at the bayonets. I'm leaving them to the grandkids, since I don't need money for anything nowadays.

 

[DudleySmith]

What did the friggin Navy need bayonets for? LOL!

To spear potatoes with I guess.

 

[1srelluc]

Well, that surprises me they would be rare; they had them piled in bins when I bought one, and I thought they were over-priced at the time but bought one anyway. I thought the German one would be worth a little more someday because the leather scabbard looked cool but nothing like those prices. I get a lot of offers for the Japanese swords my dad brought back from the Philippines and Japan, but nobody looks twice at the bayonets. I'm leaving them to the grandkids, since I don't need money for anything nowadays.

Pic of German one? Some of those can be worth some very good coin, others not so much if they were German-made but destined for some South American shit-hole....There are exceptions though.

As far as today's worth as opposed to when you bought them they were often sold wholesale by weight or by the crate without any regard as to what was in them.

I had a job at the local general store when I was a kid of cleaning various mil-surp rifles, removing the upper hardware, and cutting the stocks down to make "deer rifles" of them. They were then just stuck down into 55 gal drums. $12 for the cut ones and $10 for uncut.....That's how plentiful they were.

LOL....Old man Stokes would pay us a buck for each one we did. Great money for a kid back then.

Mom fussed because I'd come home with kerosene/cosmoline all over me.

 

[DudleySmith]

Pic of German one? Some of those can be worth some very good coin, others not so much if they were German-made but destined for some South American shit-hole....There are exceptions though.

As far as today's worth as opposed to when you bought them they were often sold wholesale by weight or by the crate without any regard as to what was in them.

I had a job at the local general store when I was a kid of cleaning various mil-surp rifles, removing the upper hardware, and cutting the stocks down to make "deer rifles" of them. They were then just stuck down into 55 gal drums. $12 for the cut ones and $10 for uncut.....That's how plentiful they were.

LOL....Old man Stokes would pay us a buck for each one we did. Great money for a kid back then.

Mom fussed because I'd come home with kerosene/cosmoline all over me.

lol yes. You could also buy jeeps really cheap , but they were also in crates and you had to assemble them yourself. Not really that cheap if you didn't already own the right tools and a garage. lol and they were packed in cosmoline as well.

Fun WW I Fact: The U.S. created the FRench trucking industry almost overnight when the truck builders here in the U.S. convinced the govt. to leave all those Army trucks overseas instead of shipping them back home and driving the prices down for new ones. The companies built them for the govt. at an average cost of $600 ea. but they were selling the same frames domestically for $2,600+.
GM alone made over 13,000 3/4 tons and around 2,500 1 tonners, and then there were a lot of 3-5 tonners, don't recall how many of those were made. Most were left in FRance.