WKC trench knife, German (1914-18)

Title	WKC trench knife
Nationality	German
Period	1914-18

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This is a good example of a fully fixable private purchase bayonet of the type often worn by officers after the ban on wearing swords at the Front in the summer of 1915. Unusually, it has a clip point. The hilt is made from an old KS98 (which stopped production in 1914) and is complete right down to the long slot for the ramrod.

This has the double stamp of WKC (Weyersberg, Kirschbaum & Co), the king's head and the knight's head.

Virtually all the nickel silver finish is present on the blade and, in the case of the hilt, some 95% remains. The scabbard has all its original paint, with considerable crackelure throughout and some bubbling from old rust, consonant with the age of the piece. There is some service wear to the bottom left hand corner of the seam of the scabbard, where there is a patch of patinated metal, perhaps 2" long. The leather work is largely original, specifically the grip loop, which will fit tightly round the hilt if pushed, but should be treated with caution on account of its age. The belt loop is made from pebbled brown calf leather of the cartridge box variety so common in 1915. The leather buckle element has been restitched, as it was coming loose.

The rivet which secures the leather strap to the loop is now missing, but was clearly of the hollow pattern evinced by the hole in the leather work. There is a good hollow period rivet on the reverse of the securing strap next to the buckle.

There are no scabbard springs - they have been replaced with thin strips of beech wood inside the scabbard and are held in place by split pin gilding metal rivets which hold the belt loop to the scabbard. This could well have been a field repair of some sort.

This is a rare bayonet.

If you want to comment on this item—re quality, age, etc—please email me.

[Edged Weapons : Bayonets : German : 20th Century]

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