ASW 43/44 1097u Weld Seam Scabbard, Red Bakelite Grips, and Webbing Frog

[Aaron]

Took a chance on this at my LGS sitting in a pile of beater bayonets. Looking for opinions on the bayonet and the frog. If its correct, this will be my first matching bayonet in 9 years.

At first I was just looking at the bayonet itself and assumed the frog is repro by default (especially for the price), but the more I look at it the more it stands apart from all the repros I have encountered. This includes aged SMWholeslae and AtTheFront examples I see a lot in collecting and reenacting. It is either a decent fake or an original. The frog is very tight and I do not plan on trying to remove it.

Thank you to Bruce and Flynaked for their quick response to my excited picture spamming in the LGS.

 

[Aaron]

Frog Details

 

[Slash]

Very nice rig and 100% original in all components. That said, who knows if the web frog was originally with this bayonet. Sellers, collectors and GIs all have a way of swapping things around. The marking on the frog is Wiko > Brake b/Blf. > 1942 for the firm of Wittkop & Cie. Metall und Lederwarenfabrik, Bielefeld in Westfalia. Thanks for posting ....

 

[joryfreeburg]

Nice rig…. Congrats

 

[Aaron]

Very nice rig and 100% original in all components. That said, who knows if the web frog was originally with this bayonet. Sellers, collectors and GIs all have a way of swapping things around. The marking on the frog is Wiko > Brake b/Blf. > 1942 for the firm of Wittkop & Cie. Metall und Lederwarenfabrik, Bielefeld in Westfalia. Thanks for posting ....

Holy smokes no clue how you can read that but thank you!

 

[AndyB]

Its nice complet, anyway its probably never used as both bayonet and frog looks like untouched, so question is it was so from war period in that combination. When is shrunked and very tight so it was for decades in that combination. On scabbard are no traces of wearing .

 

[CanadianAR]

Damn that’s a smoking rig!!! Nice find

 

[Hambone]

Congrats Aaron, you can’t do any better than that. Looks unissued and unmessed with. You can tell the frog is correct by the weaves and construction, though I’m not the maker ID wizard like Slash Well done.

 

[luftpirate]

Love the grips! Great Find, I've never found anything like that at an LGS.

 

[Aaron]

Love the grips! Great Find, I've never found anything like that at an LGS.

Me neither until now!

 

[ANDYH]

Wow, beautiful matching set! I haven't found a decent matching set in probably 10-12 years. But it's still fun looking!