Kalashnikov Bayonets of the World

Picked this beauty up several years ago. Only one I've ever seen.

Nice, love the documentation.

Martin

Wow. That is very cool.
Odd that they didn't complete the hook for the wrist strap too. But it is obviously a deliberate variation, enough for them to do a special scabbard and accessories. I'll ask my guys in Poland, but doubt they would know of it either.
It's not in any of the Polish AK bayonet books?

Here are some pictures of pages from 3 of my Polish reference books. Sorry the for the poor pictures, but my scanner, P/C and I are not getting along today. Mike

These are from the first two books. Sorry, They got turned around when downloading ..... things aren't going well today. Mike

OK, here are a couple pages In the third book and close ups. Mike

Could you post a photo of the book cover? Thanks

No problem. Mike

I have the 2nd and 3rd books. I plan to translate them someday unless someone already has a translation?

Notice in the first set of pictures that the drawing in one book and the picture in the second book appear to be the same version. It looks like a regular 6H4 hilt complete with the hook on the cross guard. The hanger and rubber insulator look like regular production items as well. Wonder why they would include the rubber insulator on a non-wire cutter scabbard? Also If you look closely you can see a small circle mark on the blade where the blades in the last pictures have a small round hole!? Why the mark or hole? Perhaps there as part of the machining for the pivot slot on a production 6H4 blade blank? Mike

I can read some Polish and do rough translations. Also have a friend here at the Univ. of Iowa that helps out at times and use Google translation too. Usually just for individual articles, etc.. Mike

Mr. B. wrote: Also If you look closely you can see a small circle mark on the blade where the blades in the last pictures have a small round hole!? Why the mark or hole? Perhaps there as part of the machining for the pivot slot on a production 6H4 blade blank? Mike

I cant speak specifically about the Polish AKM bayonet, but I know that the US M9 bayonet blade machining process uses the hole in the blade for indexing. Barry Brown (deceased), former owner of Lan-Cay, was asked if he could make a M9 bayonet without the cutter hole. He explained that all of the tooling was set up for the hole and to make the blade without the hole would require all new tooling or a hand made blade.

That's what I thought. Thanks for the semi-confirmation. I would think Poland and all the other ComBloc countries that manufacture the wire cutter bayonets would use procedures similar to the M9 for the blades. It appears Poland was simplifying the 6H4 to cut manufacturing expenses on these bayonets. I understand these prototypes were made up for possible contract sales? They were already less expensive than other typical Type IIs without the saw teeth. By using exiting tooling but eliminating the pivot hole, and the guard hook machining on the bayonet and a different finish.. I wonder why they didn't eliminate the strap hole on the pommel as well? Maybe cost more to eliminate than the savings? They must have considered making large quantities of these variations to justify the savings for all the changes.

They must have made up new or revised the tooling and produced a new end cap to replace the scabbard cutter plate. They could also eliminate the insulator stop on the side of the body. I see two different types of hangers, the traditional Polish snap hook and a fabric one without a snap hook. I would imagine different shaped hanger bars. Could you please post a picture of the back side of the scabbard?

Regardless of which hanger they would use, I would think these bayonets would be somewhat awkward to wear/carry as they would be very top heavy like the Chinese short non-wire cutter bayonets.

Mike

I just found a couple more pictures in my files from 2010. Note sure where they came from, but the drawing appears to be the same one in the Polish book. The picture seems to be of a different one. I have seen pictures of several of this version, maybe some limited product of this one?

The last picture is of a plastic model or Airsoft version of a Polish AKM 6H4 bayonet. I included this because of the similarity of the fabric hanger on the prototype. Also note the fabric wrist strap. The snap hook hanger would be unnecessary on a non-wire cutter bayonet.

Mike

Mr. B. wrote: Could you please post a picture of the back side of the scabbard?

Mike

Sorry for the delay. Here you go.

Thank you! Very interesting detail not shown in the reference pictures. A revised horseshoe shaped wire bracket for permanent attachment. Makes sense on a non-wire cutter bayonet. Mike

Pole. 6H4 export
 

Pol. 6H4 Export
Details of the quillons and scabbard original and wrong

Pol. 6H4 Export
The Handle


Beste Grüsse

Great info!