During my visit to northern france last week I came across this bayonet. I immediately spotted the "Zur Erinnerung an meine Dienstzeit" etching and after closer inspection I saw the tiger makers mark. On the other side the blade was rusted and I couldnt realy see through the rust under the lightning conditions.

Knowing nothing of these types of bayonets I decicded to buy it for the low pricetag it was given, in the knowledge that it might aswell be a faked bayonet.

After I got home I held the rusted side under some better lightning and I could see through the rust 2 skulls and in between the text "Panzer Regt, 7". After some googling I read that these aren’t often find and that the panzer versions are quite extraordinary.

Anyway, I decided to "unprofessionally" clean away some of the rust, below is the result. I expected to have removed more rust.

Even though it looks like to be a barn find of some sort(more rust is expected on ground dug items and the wood is just dryed out), only one side of the blade was more rusted(protected) than the other side, therefore and i’m not sure of it’s the real deal or not. I will just display it with my collection

What do you think?

Cheers!
David