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Imperial M5A1 in a Korean M8A1 scabbard


MattS
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I picked this relatively cheap last week. The Milpar M5A1 looks fine to me, but I was surprised to find it was in a Korean (I assume) made M8A1 scabbard. The emblem on the rear is the ROK armed forces I believe. These were made in Korea for American M5 bayonets, correct?

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IMHO, looks like a ROK sheath matched up to a bayonet assembled with surplus parts bought from MILPAR using a third party blade.

The runout on the blade doesn't match the kinds you find on known good MILPAR bayonets.

South Korea did make their own M5A1 bayonets, but this one doesn't match up with the ones I've seen. They used their own unique markings on those bayonets.

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Thanks for the input! I did not know there were people assembling surplus-pieced-together ones. These seem like they are more numerous on the market and less collected than the WW2 types. Is it worth the $35 I paid?

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M5/M5A1's don't come around until after the Armistice was signed for the Korean War.

IMHO, nothing wrong in the amount you spent on this.

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I know the M5A1s are post-Korean war (1954) and many were supplied to the ROK army to go with the Garands we gave them. It seems to me that the WW2 Garand bayonets (M-1905, M-1905E1, M-1, etc.) are far more collected than these is what I was saying. Back to my original question, were these scabbards made in Korea?

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Sorry if I miss read your earlier post. Yes I agree with your observation, and I do think the prices do reflect on supply and demand.

On a side note, would you be willing to remove the grips and post some images of the bayonet? I haven't had the opportunity to see how the guard is attached to the tang of the ones that are suspected to be post-MILPAR assembled.

From what I have seen it looks like M5A1's, M6's, and M7's could all be among the different examples.

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If I remember correctly, the bayonet here was made by Milpar and sent to Korea (and many other) countries as foreign aid. The radiused or curved runnout on the blade was used by Imperial as well as Milpar. Many of the Greek returns that were imported by CMP had the curved runnouts. The scabbard is a copy of the USM8A1 and was made by Korea and includes their military marks. Please correct me if I got anything wrong. Nice bayonet.

Marv

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Thanks for that! That matches my thought, that the bayonet was US made and supplied to Korea, and the scabbard was made by the Koreans. I had someone tell me these M8A1s were made in the USA on American equipment and exported to Korea, but I wasn't sure about that.

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Very cool, thanks for posting! I knew there were Korean made M5A1s marked with a 'K' to go with the scabbard, but I hadn't seen one before.

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I based my opinion earlier on information dating back some ten years or so, having to do with the long runout present on the blade in the OP. Thanks to some of the input posted here, I've been digging around some more and ran across enough to cause me to amend this opinion.

Matts, at this time I see nothing about your bayonet that shows me that it can't be an original MILPAR M5A1, and possibly one that was originally shipped to South Korea and later repatriated here with the correct sheath.

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