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Comment by Lars Ray on July 12, 2024 at 22:32

Great questions - this is a modified M 98/05 for Turkish consignment. They took thousands of those 14 inch butcher blade bayonets and modified them to these 10 inch knives. According to the Prussian War Ministry, Waffenfabrik Mauser A. G. produced 493,900 of these in 1917, of which 116,000 were dispatched to the Ottoman Empire.

The four characters shown on the cross piece are the only markings attributed to Turkey. All other markings on the piece are German.

At the time, Turkey had a large surplus of German-made arms, and this bayonet would fit the1903/38, the 1893/30, the 1888/35, and the1898/05, otherwise known as the 98/05.

No muzze ring - yep - that's a design intention. This 1917 model also comes with the steel blast plate along the hilt spine as the fix to protect the hilt from muzzle blast. Earlier models did not have this.feature.

More to come....

Comment by Kevin D on July 12, 2024 at 21:46

I really like the shape of this blade.  A little reminiscent of a saex.

Speaking of saexes...  What are those characters on the crossguard?  that looks like futhark (elder or younger I am not sure).

Again, no muzzle ring.  Was this a German design thing?