WWII Bayonet Easy cleaning and maintence

F

foxface

Joined
Dec 16, 2011
Messages
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So I was pawn shopping around with my brother today and we came upon a antique looking bayonet. After purchasing it at a good price, we took it home and further examined it. We found on both the scabbard as well as the blade a Z with a circle around it. on the hilt in the metal CM is branded on it, the serial number is SR 6671, and on the scabbard next to the circled Z is a M with a square around it on the belt clip I assume. So after some research I think we located it to be from the 1930`s and from Romania. Its pretty dirty, almost no rust, a little bit of corrosion on the edge, the edge is not really there and the point it nonexistent at this point. So I want to keep it and display it in my room without destroying it, so how do I clean it up a little bit and make it look nice without ruining all of the old vintage look to it. I would love easy household items I could use to properly clean and maintenance the bayonet. Also if you find out its not from Romania I would love to know some more history. Thanks :)
 
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You NEVER want to clean up antiques, especially military bayonets. Just a word of advice. At the most use a thin coat of oil to prevent any more corrosion/rust.
 
Okay sounds good, I definitely want to preserve the vintage look of it a bit, but what should I do about the little bit of corrosion and rust that is there already? And what type of oil should I use as well as what brand is best to use?
 
Yeah, definitely the VZ24, so do you have any idea on value? Or what oil to use to help keep it in good quality?
 
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XXXX Best thing for you to do is just start researching the bayonet sale web sites and compare conditions of what there selling as to what you have. Also you have to look at has it been sharpened, has it been modified and if so by who. When talking modified bayo's, well the Germans took a lot of the older models and modified the sheath's and even the bayos. Be patient, and do a lot of reading. The Czech line of bayo's has been one of my favorite of all because this is one bayo that has been shipped to many nations around the world. The Irish for instance had some made under a contract that instead of the standard Czech blade position which the cutting edge faces up, the Irish wanted the edge down like most other countries blades. The VZ24 fits the regular Mauser bayonet mortise slot. There was a variation of it called theVZ33 and some of the basic info is in those web sites I posted earlier.

XXXX When you are talking about militaria ANYTHING you must educate yourself on what you want to aquire. Is is real or is it memorex is the rule of the day when talking MILITARIA!!!

Vanguard41XX said a mouth full!!! Cleaning old items can actually cause a reduction in value. So if you do anything use a good rust penetrant, put on rubber gloves and massage the steel. Loosen the rust gradually and wipe of with clean rags. Use a good gun oil and wipe the blades down. Now as far as taking the grips of to clean the hilts, again you have to be very careful not to cause any damage to the screws and the wood. One thing to remember is the wood scales have had dirt, moisture, oil and God nose what on them over the years and the wood can sometimes be brittle. My advice is DON'T touch it.

Do you have any pics??? Is yours blued or satin finished??? I don't mean chrome, those are parade blades and or some have been chromed after the war years.
 
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Yea, looks pretty much normal as there were thousands of these made. This was one bayonet that really served the world armies well. The Mauser rifle was so prevalent around the world and the Czechs and Germans filled the stores with there bayo's. Hope you got a good deal on it and it looks to be in pretty good shape. Tip is rounded off but all in all not bad.

Congrats on the find!!!
 
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From Bladeforums rules:

WHAT IS MY KNIFE / GADGET / SPATULA / TUNING FORK WORTH ?!?!?!?!

In order to curtail potential abuse of membership privileges associated with the forums, questions regarding valuation of knives and collections are limited to those with a membership level which permits selling on this site. Accordingly, registered and basic members may not start or post in threads with such requests whether with the intent to sell or for informational purposes only. This rule applies throughout the site.

In other words, without a paid Gold membership, you don't get to ask about sale values. Too many people abused this question to hint they had a knife for sale, which you need that membership for.
 
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