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jwh44 bayonet block letter... "t"?

T

Tex75

Member
I recently obtained this jwh44 bayonet, minus the scabbard. It's not in great condition but I couldn't pass it up because I was intrigued by the fact that it was manufactured in occupied France (and the price was right). Once I got it in my hands and was able to clean and look it over, I started doing some research and learned from this site that jwh44 is one of the less common bayonets. Sometimes I get lucky. My question is concerning the serial number block letter. My first guess was that it is a "k" or possibly an "x". I see that for the year 1944, it could only be an "r' through "v". In my opinion, it does not look like any of those letters, but I haven't identified which font they used. I have been able to find examples online of every letter except "t" for a jwh bayonet from 1944. There is one example on this site that looks similar but there is no mention in the comments about the block. Should I assume that this bayonet is from block "t"?
PXL_20240318_035139787~2.jpgPXL_20240318_035202513~2.jpgPXL_20240318_035300338~2.jpgPXL_20240318_035328277~2.jpgWaA251 Waffenamt for Manufacture d’Armes Chatellerault.jpgPXL_20240318_035539474.jpg
 
This one from a post in 2012 has the same block letter and it looks like a "t". The one on the scabbard is clear.
www.k98kforum.com

jwh 44 K98 bayonet

I snagged this bayonet at a local antique mall. It's a matching jwh44 (Staatliche Waffenfabrik, Chatellerault, France) in about as nice a condition as you could hope to find. When I was actively collecting '44 date K98 bayonets this was one that had always eluded me , not even a bedraggled...
www.k98kforum.com www.k98kforum.com
 
Despite presence of some rust, the bayonet exhibits a lot of machine markings and is fairly crude. Agree the alpha letter suffix is a "t". Production terminated in the "v" bloc...
 
grimlin13 said:
This one from a post in 2012 has the same block letter and it looks like a "t". The one on the scabbard is clear.
www.k98kforum.com

jwh 44 K98 bayonet

I snagged this bayonet at a local antique mall. It's a matching jwh44 (Staatliche Waffenfabrik, Chatellerault, France) in about as nice a condition as you could hope to find. When I was actively collecting '44 date K98 bayonets this was one that had always eluded me , not even a bedraggled...
www.k98kforum.com www.k98kforum.com
Click to expand...
Yes, that post from 2012 was the only example I could find anywhere on the internet of a jwh44 with a block letter that looked like mine. Thanks for confirming my suspicion.
 
pwcosol said:
Despite presence of some rust, the bayonet exhibits a lot of machine markings and is fairly crude. Agree the alpha letter suffix is a "t". Production terminated in the "v" bloc...
Click to expand...
Thanks for the response. As the saying goes, she may be ugly but she's mine. Now I'm on the tireless hunt for a scabbard.
 
Tex75 said:
Thanks for the response. As the saying goes, she may be ugly but she's mine. Now I'm on the tireless hunt for a scabbard.
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The crudeness is what makes her a beauty. Good luck with your hunt for a scabbard. jwh scabbards do show up on occasion for sale. I have seen a few on Epay (out your azz). Don`t remember what year they were. I will keep an eye out and let you know if I find one.
 
I wouldnt say its a crude mashining, untypical for the late 1944 period when compare the other makers production and when looked how the quality was decreased on end of v range, presented here by AWS as sample. Anyway there was a damage done probably on pommel.
 
I guess I was referring more to the blade having the appearance of rough machining. Agreed on the pommel.( bad storage?)
Do you, Andy, say the blade has been damaged post production?
 
I like the bayonet but see more in the way of heavy patina and poor storage damage than rough late war crudity and lack of final machining. My thoughts only .....
 
grimlin13 said:
I guess I was referring more to the blade having the appearance of rough machining. Agreed on the pommel.( bad storage?)
Do you, Andy, say the blade has been damaged post production?
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I haven't seen any definitive answers about which factories were phosphating blades and when. Do we know if Staatliche Waffenfabrik was doing this in 1944? The finish on this blade is so different from my other S84/98 III bayonets I'm not sure if it's phosphate, corrosion, or blued over rough machining. I have more experience with milsurp firearms than bayonets and the look and feel is not unlike a Parkerized rifle. The pommel definitely looks and feels like damage from poor storage and handling but I'm less certain that is 100% the issue concerning the blade.
 
Slash and Andy know more about jwh bayonets than I could probably learn in what time I have left on this earth. I am going to refer this to them as so far, I seem to have missed the mark. I guess your bayonet is ugly and got that way from poor storage. lol.
I will still let you know if I ever run across a scabbard for it.
 
grimlin13 said:
Slash and Andy know more about jwh bayonets than I could probably learn in what time I have left on this earth. I am going to refer this to them as so far, I seem to have missed the mark. I guess your bayonet is ugly and got that way from poor storage. lol.
I will still let you know if I ever run across a scabbard for it.
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Reality can be harsh sometimes but I still love it. I just see myself preserving a piece of history from further damage until it reaches the hands of it's future owner. Thanks for your help.
 
Grimlin You are good informed and well researched, i am certainly not so good in 1944 pieces as Slash is, i personally hold only 4 times here in middle Europe a jwh in my 40 years of collecting but all were pre 1944, one 42jwh have it from middle Slovakia. i assume as the firm was liberated already late june/early july 1944 the condition was well prior to very last pieces, i was talking
about the damage on the pommel on obverse. The piece is lightly rusted over blued finish, jwh is not reported with phosphate. Should be well oiled on blade.
44jwh.jpg
 
Tex75, You may or may not be interested but there is a jwh 44 scabbard for sale on ebay at this moment. I know it will not be serial number matched to yours but it would be maker and year matched. Cheers!
 
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