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Krag Bowie Bayonet (fake)


rldarmstr
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Its aged well, I guess made from an original bayonet handle, probably dated after 1900. Also the US is just way off. It has bidders. Oh well. No reference books. No knowledge, no forum.....

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I'm not an expert on fakes but I have picked up a bit of knowledge over the years. The first thing I noticed was the distance between the cross guard and where the blade expands. That straight section is way to long and usually indicative of a weld, to add the handle to a made up blade without having to take the handle apart. The rivets and slabs are not disturbed but a shank has to be left, in front of the guard, to facilitate the weld process. The blade, when compared to an original, is shaped wrong. An original has more of an arch along its back and the tip is also not shaped correctly. The photo of the back of the blade shows a blade thickness of several times the thickness of an actual Bowie Bayonet blade. The Krag Bowie Bayonet is very thin and there is no "flat" to be seen when looking at the back of the blade. An original Bowie is a rather delicate instrument considering its intended use. A beautiful piece of craftsmanship from Springfield Arsenal but not very practical.

 

This is really not a very good fake, in my opinion. It's interesting only in the context of fakes and the education that can be gleaned from them. I would not invest very much money in something like this and do not intend to bid on the auction as the bid has already exceeded the value I would put on it.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I Wrote the vendor of this knife and told him it was a fake. I was offered one done the same way at a show in Florida about 5 years ago and may have been the same one. The person who has this for sale never replied to me and has continued to offer it for sale.

 

Ron Norman

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There was a guy in Portland, Oregon, making them as well about 10 years ago. Scabbards, too. He used broken Krag bayonets as the foundation and added new blades to them. Restamped the date also.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I would be entirely happy with a faker in my collection. There's simply no way I can justify the expense of a real one, unless I find one at a flea market.

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Just for the record, the final sale price was $553 plus $33 S&H. The winner was apparently willing to go higher since he had entered an "insurance" bid above his winning bid. At that price I doubt he was knowingly just buying a replica as a space-holder in his collection.

 

The seller's disclaimer certainly was unambiguous: "no warranty or claims and All SALES ARE FINAL". I would be very reluctant to bid on any item with such a statement, even if I thought it was authentic.

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