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I just acquired a lot of bayonets that have been laying in a closet for decades thus the lint usual adhured to the grease, etc. What is the best method of cleaning them and identifying them. There are quite a few U. S. Military blades there plus the usual overseas rifle bayonets. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanx.
 
Three 1917's and two 1919's. Not sure abou the correctness of the scabbards. One of the 1919's has been cut back. I am negotiating with a fellow over on the coast and will let you know the outcome if you have a serious interest. Louie 541-401-1063, I don't text.
 
Here is one of them. To my untrained eye they all three look good but I'm no authority on bayonets and I'm not positive on the proper scabbards. I looked up on the net and the going seems to be around $150 with scabbard.

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So the bayonet pictured here is indeed the 1917 model...this bayonet fits the 1917 US "Enfield" rifle and WWI - Vietnam era "Trench Guns"....
Scabbards may be metal or leather with a metal throat and chap....many times these were dyed or painted various shades of "OD Green".

Not sure I'd "clean" that one up any more...its looks good to me.
Andy
 
Thanx for the intel. I'm leaving all of them alone for now. I only cleaned the grime, etc so a person would not feel like they wouldn't want to handle them. A lot of them were really caked in grease and lint, dog hairs, etc after decades in the closet. A real interesting trip learning about these and I'm not even close to getting done what with 46 of them in the bunch.
 
Find some Flitz, nonabrasive, will not affect blueing. You can get it in paste or infused in a cotton wadding, I don't have any now,but I need some! Also, believe it or not, I have found Mother's mag polish to be another nonabrasive cleaner. Go with the Flitz first. Change to clean pad often, you don't want the corrosion you remove to scratch the metal.

amazon has a bunch of their products listed, the gun and knife care kit looks best.
 
Last Edited:
Andy, Thank you for your valuable input. Most of the scabbards do not have the frogs and some do indeed look to be English. Not sure how that affects value. I have used a product called "Goof Off" and a soft brush to get rid of the grime. There doesn't appear to be any significant rust, just caked with grease mixed with dust, lint and other "stuff" that needed to be removed from the blades & scabbards. That's all pretty much done to the extent I am going to do, the rest will up to the new owners minus what I keep for myself.
 

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