Hand Straps for AK Bayonets

[FirearmFrank]

Does anyone have any info on what hand straps go with what bayonets.

i got 3 hand straps for $6.00 two leather brown and 1 leather green/gray.
the brown leather i think goes with the polish or russian? green/gray (more gray) goes with east german?

[MDIvie]

Are they all double buckle straps. If so, they are all Romanian.

[Mr. B.]

This is a difficult question to answer as the wrist straps are not easy to identify by country. There are several different basic forms of straps. The oldest/first style (Russian) is just a plain leather strap with slots cut in both ends. A later version had a small loop made by folding one end of a leather or fabric strap and closing the loop with a small rivet or by sewing. This loop was used to secure that end to the pommel end of the hilt. This was done by treading the strap through the hole in the pommel and then through the small strap loop. The loose end was then threaded through a small metal buckle with 3 openings making the length adjustable. The buckle was then attached to the hook on the bottom of the cross guard. Another basic style used 2 buckles, a small 2 opening one on the pommel end and the larger 3 opening one on the cross guard end.

The are a multitude of small variations in strap material, rivets, buckles, color and assembly that vary from different times and countries that sometimes assist in identifying them and what bayonet they go with. I will try to show the basic forms here and as I have time, the smaller variations by individual countries in the main Forum body. Feel free to post pictures of your straps and ask questions at anytime as there are many experienced collectors available here to help. Mike

[Mr. B.]

Here are pictures from my collection of the Basic forms of wrist straps. One piece slotted leather strap. Single buckle strap. double buckle strap. These pictures are all of an assortment of early Russian 6H3 Type I bayonets just to illustrate the different basic forms. Mike

[Mr. B.]

The metal buckles used on the wrist straps are stamped metal and come in a wide variety of sizes and shape detail. They are most commonly bare metal, but also are found painted black, blued, and with bright finishes. The buckles are difficult, if not impossible, to identify by country. Also they may well have been exchanged between the ComBloc countries as many other componets were at various times. Pictures are of an assortment of extra loose ones in my collection.

Mike

[MDIvie]

Mr B, if Frank would post pics my bet is these would be Romanian. Several Romanian have become available here in US recently. I bought a batch that included a couple of shades of brown and some gray leather ones that look like they were made from left over East German leather. They were double buckle type, i.e. no loop riveted or sewn in. I've never run into a slotted strap like in your first picture. Nor had I seen any in any of the pictures in manuals or AK related books until this picture.

MDI

[Mr. B.]

MDI, I certainly wouldn't bet against you. However I recently sold/traded several assorted leather straps from Russian/Bulgarian reworks. They were all different shades of tan, brown, grey, green and black leather single buckle style. Guess I thought of them first, as I have not seen the Romys you described, especially the grey ones. I have had problems finding nice/different Romy straps to display.

The pictures and translation below are from a Japanese AK book I had handy. Thought they might jog your memory as I'm sure you've seen it before. The drawing and other similar ones are found in several early Russian and other AKM manuals and references. It shows the slotted strap and an early hanger style as well. I found three of these straps in a shipping container of reworked Russian 6X3 & 6X4 plus Bulgarian 6X4 bayonets. I believe this container was from Bulgaria and contained what looked like floor sweepings and reject junk along with the reworks. One strap was chamois soft, but one end missing, another was hard dried out cracking. The third was complete but getting hard, but I was able to use it as a template to make this exact replicate. I keep the original in a sealed plastic container. Mike

IMG_0169.JPG (33.95 KiB) Viewed 23883 times

[FirearmFrank]

thanks guys for the info.

here are the straps

[Mr. B.]

Nice find! MDI was correct! All three appear to be Romanian. They are two buckle style with the classic Romanian leather look. On two the leather is smooth and chocolate to cordovan brown in color with embossed edge lines on the sides. The third one also appears to be Romanian in style, but the gray color is new to me. The small holes near the pointed end are for inserting a tool or cord to assist pulling the strap through the pommel hole and the buckles. Nice to see the different sizes/shape on the 3 hole buckles. Nice packaging, I wonder if it original, as done by the manufacture/assembler or was done at a later point in time. They appear to be new, surprised they'd be individually packaged for military issue. Could they be reproductions made for the collectors market as many Romanian bayonets are missing straps? Mike

[Mr. B.]

Another thought about the colors on the Romanian straps above. I have noticed that on some late issue Romanian 6X3 bayonets and many of the newer 6X4 bayonets the straps have been more of a natural medium tan leather. Could this be a change over and the packaged ones above are new old stock, (NOS), and being phased out? Mike

[MDIvie]

Mr. B, thanks for the refresher from Tokoi. I also checked and older manual I have and noticed this. I hope to be able to figure out when the change was made to the style with the loop and buckle or two buckles, etc.

Your theory on the change to natural leather may be right. However, I have noticed Romania sells a lot of military stuff on the open market and has for some time. That is why there were so many Romanian bayonets in the Gulf Wars, Afghanistan, the Balkans, and other hot spots. I figured this was just part of that.

[ou75id32]

Seen this topic today , on old forum was my post about hangers and straps and also at least 3 photos with early first type of leather strap and I see Mike found only lately chinese copied photo and made one strap but wrong... First type was light brown or better say tan color and it was legacy taken from 6x3 source Todorov knife which used two loops and for bayonets was only removed one (had luck to get original SVD brown early bayonet and scabbard with long first type insulator and this strap and two clip hanger ). That kind of strap is extremely rare (seen only two and one is mine now ) to find and was short in use even illustrated on manuals, the first better strap was leather with two plates which was used by early types AKM bayonets and copied from Romania and Hungary (Hungary copied also hanger while Poland copied Tula hanger). There are different kind of straps they made them from all kind of leather types (think I seen here post where someone says he has one with raw "suede" leather and I have also one and seen them at least 3 like that (think one was sold on Russian forums about weapons). It become boring to repeat on every forum same things but it seems same topic is needed, maybe If this forum is more active it be worth..