As I have crates of old dirty bayonets lining my man cave, I decided to do a crash course on some common U.S. pokey things over in my column at Guns.com.
Because nothing says social distancing like a rifle topped with a pokey thing.
Bull Moose had this great selection of old Mauser bayos up for grabs.
(LtoR): Spanish wooden handle M43, WWI German S84-98, WWII K98 41 FNJ, WWII K98 WKC Commercial, WWII 41 FFC, and a WWII DURKOPP bayonet.
As I was lacking an ALCOSO K98 bayonet (the third from the right), I picked it up.
The blade has a heavy patina with a few light specks of dust of oxidation but not too much to see the “WaA883” Waffenamt and “41” on the blade. The serial is “5317” and it has a prominent “S” for Solingen.
The “fnj” code denotes ALCOSO manufacturer, that of traditional German blademaker Alexander Coppel GmbH of Solingen. The single-edged blade has been sharpened repeatedly but still has 250 mm (just under 10-inches) of steel to it while the black bakelite panels are intact. Overall length is right at 15-inches. It cleaned up just fine with Ballistol (what else?).
Coppel had a proud history, making everything from swords to penknives and cutlery all the way back to 1821, with their series of officer’s sabers and fireman’s dress swords being particularly popular in Imperial Germany. Sadly, the firm was confiscated during WWII as the family was Jewish. Restored after the war, it still exists as Mars ALCOSO Stahlwarenfabrik GmbH and since the 1950s has specialized in precision-made clippers, scissors, and tweezers for the veterinary market– an almost literal swords-into-plowshares analogy.
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