Butcher Blade.

[Jock Auld]

Guys, as stated above.

Rich

[Bruce Pennington]

I don't know bayonets.  What are we seeing here?

[ColonelKlink1942]

On 05/02/2025 at 07:34, Bruce Pennington said:

I don't know bayonets.  What are we seeing here?

 

Bruce and Jock,

 

The teeth on the blade's spine indicate that this is a "Sawback" variant of the Imperial German S98/05 knife bayonet, used with the Gewehr 98 bolt-action rifle. Typically, Sawbacks were only issued to Pioneer and Sapper companies, as it was for the utilitarian purpose of sawing through wood, limbs of trees, thick rope, cutting wire, chopping bushes, and so on. They were made with limited numbers. Older patterns with and without sawteeth during the Great War (in 1914 and 1915) lacked a flashguard and had a partial muzzle ring that protruded higher and today has a colloquial term "high ears". Soldiers found that firing their Gewehr 98s caused burning and damage to the grips of their bayonets, and the high ears affected the accuracy of the rifle. From that point on, production included adding a flashguard and a shorter muzzle ring from 1916 onwards, until production ceased in favour of the S84/98 I (the well-known first-pattern German bayonet fitted to the Karabiner 98a and eventually the famous Karabiner 98k with the S84/98 III, or third pattern). Existing high-ear examples had the ears filed down and a flashguard was added to meet these requirements.

 

Jock's example was manufactured and the blade was proofed in 1915 (as shown by the "Crown over W over 15" marking on the spine just past the muzzle ring). Manufactured by R. Stock & Co., Berlin-Marienfielde, this is an unusual maker, and I'm having difficulty finding much information on them in regards to the war industry, someone else may have the right information, and I welcome further insight. It is likely an "alter Art" (a.A.) or "older pattern/model" given the proof date, as these usually had a one-piece wooden grip surrounding the tang, and "neuer Art" (n.A.) have two individual grips secured to the tang by screws and spanner nuts.

 

Whether you're familiar or not, at some point (I can't remember the exact year(s) ), propaganda began to circulate stating that these bayonets were grossly inhumane and they got a bad reputation (with it going so far as to say that British, French, and Canadian soldiers were executing prisoners found with these bayonets), the Germans set about filing down and removing the saw teeth and sawbacks were removed from service altogether around 1917, and a number of these examples with a toothless spine can be found today. There's more to that "fact or fiction", but I don't have the resources in front of me to add more than I know here.

 

Lovely bayonet, thanks for sharing!