[JimB]

Was given a bayonet over the weekend, guy had acquired a bunch of them 15 or 20 years ago and all he knew was that they were Polish and I wouldn't bet on that being right.

Only marks I see are a 2 or a z in a circle and the number 9192 stamped in the pommel.

Any ideas? Maybe M1904 or M1908?

Blade is 11"

 

[MarkG]

My best guess is that it looks like a reworked Czech VZ24. Usually ring is in -line with guard.

 

[JimB]

My best guess is that it looks like a reworked Czech VZ24. Usually ring is in -line with guard.

Ring was certainly welded at some point, but looks like the blade is solid. Thanks for the guess, I looked at pictures and it looks similar to a VZ24 but the cutting edge is on the bottom instead of the top.

 

[cubrock]

Some of the VZ bayonets were blade down. The VZ24 was made on contract for other countries. The Z in a circle is definitely Czech.

 

[JimB]

Thanks guys, frees me up to convert it to something useful.

 

[cubrock]

They are made from very good steel. It has little value as it sits, so making something useful out of it would be a good thing to do, IMHO.

 

[herr_cobblermachen]

Whew, thats a hum-dinger. It reminds me a lot of the Norwegian Krag M1916/43 bayonet in so much as its offset.
If its authentic, and I had to take a stab at it without doing any measurements, id suggest that this is an czech m24 bayonet that's been modified to fit the m95m steyr rifle. There were a ton of cutdown and extreme bayonets modified for this purpose, usually cutting the handle and moving the pommel up, but I think this would be a lot more time efficient. The only problem with that theory is I think the needed length reduction to fit an m95m is several inches, not just one.
TBH, I have never seen this done with a bayonet before, and I tried looking, but found nothing. The nature of the weld may be the determining factor on credibility here.

 

[JimB]

Nothing special about the weld, but it seems apparent from the cleanup that the grips were not reinstalled. While there are also grinding marks inside the ring, showing that perhaps it was intended to be fit to a rifle, those marks still look fresh in spite of being in Storage for decades that I know of, so maybe it was a failure and got tossed into a scrap pile along the way.

 

[JimB]

Oh, forgot pics.

 

[Inglis]

The Turks modified a lot of bayonets to fit new rifles.

This might be one of these.