FAKES

As the value of some blades gets higher it becomes worth while for people to deliberately fake particularly valuable ones using added markings or converting others to resemble a more valuable one.  I only include in these pieces which are deliberately made to deceive collectors.  examples of this are :

-No4 MkI

-Saw back additions to Imperial German blades

-UK Kukri

-UK Quillioned 1907

-Vivian Carbine

-UK Sten

-UK No 5 MkI

-Finnish M39

-remarked French 1892's,

-German DEMAG crankhandle

-Remanufactured SG42's

-Sawback additions

- Japanese Arisaka

- JAPAN Type 100 (Chinese made)

REPRODUCTION

Reproduction items are made to be replicas of valuable or collectable bayonets. These are not meant to deceive collectors rather to allow them to have a representative item in their collection that would otherwise be beyond their means to have (or is very rare), or for re-enactors or film work. Most reproductions are of items that have intrinsic display appeal, and are of sword type blades or historic items.

Many of these will come back on the market as an attempt to deceive people into believing that they are the real thing, especially the early ones which now have a substantial amount of aging to them. Examples of this:

-British 1870 ELCHO

-British Naval Boarding

-British Farquhar

-US Dahlgren

-US Remington Socket

-UK Quillioned 1907

-UK Baker Sword

-UK Pritchard Green

-Various American Civil War blades

FANTASY

These are blades made up to represent blades that were never made. They come from the imagination of the maker but are based on models available at the time. They are usually only made in singletons or in very low numbers, as they are made for the maker or his client, they may or may not have been made to deceive collectors but were probably not. examples

German 84/98 Dress blades

Series of blades sold as AK47 bayonets

UK VIVIAN CARBINE -Fantasy

Again there is no scabbard to this bayonet. It would appear that this may be a Fantasy piece as opposed to a reproduction as I can find no reference to a blade like this, although there was a similar bayonet made for the Irish Constabulary with a different blade shape. The finish on this blade identifies it as a modern reproduction, the screws and fittings are poorly made and the "aging" shows too regular a pattern to impact marks.

Vivian Carbine Bayonet for the Vivian double barrelled carbine. Maybe this should hold the title of the first knife bayonet

modern stamps on pommel

Baker style bayonet mount and regular impact marks on modern made

UK FARQUHAR HILL   - FAKE

An experimental semi automatic rifle trialed during the 20's used a reduced length 1907 pattern bayonet and scabbard. Fakes of this are available although often mis identified as fighting knives etc. the blade may have the wrong dates to be correct for the trial (should be pre 1924), and are typically 5mm short of the actual length of the true blade (165mm). Uses a cut down 1907 scabbard

Cut down 1907  Farquhar Hill Fake

UK No 5 MkI -FAKE

The first model of this bayonet came with the hilt panels attached by a single screw and are very rare. Fakes are easily made by replacing the grips with new ones with a single screw, without removing the grips you need to examine very carefully the grips and screw to ensure that they are original, if you can remove the grips then look for the presence of the original two screw holes that should not be there

No example

UK KUKRI - Fantasy

Made from a Kukri blade and a Brown Bess socket welded together. This blade was originally shown in Watts and White in the 70's as a genuine article it was later shown to be a fake, that has since been reproduced. The real "Kukri" bladed bayonets have a much straighter blade and are heavily marked by the Nepalese

Kukri style bayonet

UK 1907 QUILLION -Reproduction/Fake

I have put down reproduction and fake as I believe that both version exist. Mine I believe to be a reproduction made for the film industry as opposed to a fake made to fool collectors. The Fake would be a pre 1913 made original that had originally been made with a quillion, that was reworked to replace the quillion that would have been removed during rework after 1913 (maybe you could call this a restoration). The points to look out for are:

Fake quillion 1907, based on a 1944 Admiralty contract blade (quillions ceased in 1913!) Possibly made for the film Gallipoli, as many were made for this film

WSC 1944 markings and quillion

FINNISH M39-FAKE

The following is based on information posted on the Yahoo club on Bayonet Collecting by collector Gammacoupe

The fake is blued. The Finns did not blue any M39 bayonets. Fake is 11.75 inches long, real one is 11.5. The locking bolt on fake doesn't fit the hole in the pommel anywhere near as well as the real one. The left side of the real ricasso is stamped O.Y.VELJEKSETKULMALAA.B. (note the 4 periods, after first 2 and last 2 letters). The fake doesn't have the periods, the letters are larger (the O and the B actually hang off either edge of the blade, the whole stamping is too long). The letters on the real one are both smaller and more distinct. The fake scabbard is a darker shade of green, the metal tip protector is painted black (real is same green as leather). Also, fake scabbard. is about 3/8 inch longer than real. The fake cross guard comes to a fairly sharp point, is quite rounded on real one. The grip screws and nuts on the fake have machining marks on the visible surfaces and stick up out of the wood, while the real ones are polished flush with the wood. ..., there are more small differences, but they are difficult to describe. Note that there have been non blued fakes reported in real scabbards!

Fake 1939 model bayonet

Has SkY markings on ricasso

Makers marks have incorrect spacing and period marks in it. My copy has a made in China sticker on the rear of the scabbard, but once removed you would need to know what to look for to ID as a fake, although it is very obvious when compared to the real thing

Germany 71/84 Sawback -FAKE

Made from an original 71/84 bayonet by machining new saw teeth into the back of the blade, in this case it is a Turkish modified 71/84. The whole range of Imperial German Bayonets had the option of being issued with a sawback (approx 5% of each types production) and are these usually have a significant impact on price. You need to know your blades to identify the fakes,

71/84 with added sawback

Throat damage would indicate that the blade has been in and out often making you think that it is original

Turkish serial numbers on cross guard

The saw back starts too far down the ricasso and has too few teeth to be original

USA 1861 DAHLGREN

Reproduced originally in the 70's the first versions of these had made in Japan in the hilt slot which is an obvious give away, later versions had improved markings. My example came as a "pattern" buy for less than a tenth of the cost of a real item. I am not sure of how to identify the fakes other than by price as I have never had access to an original blade

Dahlgren bayonet for Naval M1861 rifle

USA Remington

Made primarily for re-enactors it is the newness of the scabbard that shows this to be a fake.

Replica of Remington Socket

GERMANY Etched 84/98 -Fantasy

Made in the 70's by a man in the Midlands in England these items continually show up on places like EBAY with provenance from vets claiming they were removed form officers in WWII. The Germans made blades specifically for presentation purposes whilst these blades are all 84/98 issue blades, typically with makers marks and serials. Markings are always desirable, being for Afrika Korps, and various SS units (mine is a Dachau based unit) and bands, and they are beautifully done. The original blades were from Czechoslovakia and hand picked for ultimate quality, later versions used less perfect blades and it shows.

It is easy to tell these as fantasy pieces as the Germans didn't make any like this! if you would like to provide me with images of visions of this blade you have i would like to provide some idea as to the range of markings applied

Fantasy etched 84/98 with spurious SS commemorative markings. Lettering is raised and polished over blued finish

SS Fantasy Blade based on Standard Mauser Blade

SS Fantasy Blade based on Standard Mauser Blade

SS Fantasy Blade based on Standard Mauser Blade

Fantasy etched 84/98 with spurious SS commemorative markings. Lettering is raised and polished over blued finish, these were apparently made in th e60's by a dealer in chesterfield

FRENCH 1892 - FAKE

In order to increase the value of 1892's rare manufacturers marks have been added to the spine, as these are added to an original blade then you must take great care as to the style and location of the marks, and evidence of polishing or deliberate aging

no example

GERMAN CRANKHANDLE  - FAKE

A WWI Ersatz bayonet that is a common fake. The markings, the frog  and the frog press stud are all incorrect Original versions were painted grey in general fakes are blued. The press stud should  have indentations in the top, the fakes have modern unmarked press studs (very easy identifier), the fake has a much longer frog than the fake as well

Duisberg Demag (fake)

SAW BACKS  - FAKE added 20/08/2002

Saw backed bayonets tend to be more collectable than their plane backed brethren and as such are worth more. Their collectablity stems from their relative rarity (German sawbacks only accounted for approximately 5% of the total number of blades made of any model). Since many sawbacked blades were made in plane backed version, fakers often just cut new teeth into what was originally a plane blade.

These fakes can be very hard to detect as many of them are made to the original specifications on proper machines. The blueing on the teeth may be a give away, the start and stop of the teeth or the number of the teeth can also tell you, the best bet is the weight as a fake blade will weigh less than the plane blade it was made from, the original sawbacks weighed the same or more originally. The sample below is a clearly faked blade as these are not saw teeth, rather they are gear teeth. The best thing is to know your blades and if the deal is too good, ask your self why?

A fantasy piece based on a Belgian FN24 I believe, the Mauser ricasso mark is clearly cold stamped on the finished blade rather than the original hot stamped method used by Mauser. The spine stampings although superficially good, they are clearly incorrect with the inspection mark being completely incorrect.

I have provided comparison pictures with both the 98/05 and the Jugo 24b the later being what many buyers on EBAY have assumed the item to be (a rare 24b sawback), it shows the completely different saw tooth profile (fantasy has over 60 teeth). Note also the longer blade length of the fantasy piece.

Even the scabbard is different being shorter and wider than that of the Jugo bayonets.

This example came out of Afghanistan, where it had been in storage for over 30 years.

This sawback has been faked poorly using  gear cutting tooling, it is obviously nothing like any saw backs used on original bayonet models