The Militaria Thread: Collecting and Identification

maccapacca said:
I need a bayonet for my k98 and my swiss rubin, is that one off ebay? I tried one from a friends collection but it wouldn't fit. There's a slight difference between the 1911 and 1889 http://www.swissrifles.com/sr/detail/ I wish I could try yours on mine to see if it fits.

Been looking at the comments on the EU changes and it seems like a great deal of words and no detail, none of the dealers know what's happening and there's no real announcements.
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Mine is actually an M1918 - I somehow wrote the numbers in the wrong order! Will that model fit yours?

I think all the utterly terrible rules are coming into play but lots of people don't understand them yet. It's a, frankly, ridiculous state of affairs, and lots of very nice law-abiding people are going to lose a great deal.
 
maccapacca said:
Potentially yes. The wording says anything advertised for sale will need to be up to new spec which will mean eventually everything will be new spec deactivated.
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That's my understanding, too. Everything okay to own now will still be okay after the new laws. But when you sell anything on it will need to be 'updated', which will cost you money.

There was a section in the proposals that stated some of these deacs will be taken away, no matter what. I haven't seen if that's going to come into force or not.

Honestly, how they expect this all to be policed is downright bizarre. Logistically, we have only two proofing houses in the UK and hundreds of thousands of deacs are traded each year by collectors and dealers. They simply will not be able to cope. This is, by far, the most stupid set of rules I've ever witnessed. EVERYTHING about it is counter-productive and idiotic.

All they needed to do was force the rest of Europe to raise their standards of deactivation to meet ours. Simple.
 
I must admit, moving my PPK and Bren on has felt good now, but we don't really know what is going to happen - your Bren might double in price overnight. I don't have a large budget for collecting so I couldn't take the risk. I've kept my Mosin and my SMLE, though - love them too much. :)
 
Thank you, it's certainly an object of beauty, yet functional too. If you're after antique swords there are lots of reputable dealers online. I can list some if you'd like? You'll pay a premium for them, though. There are other, rougher, ways to find this stuff but you have to do your homework and know where to look.
 
Looks great fixed, Macca! Are you going to weather the current storm or sell your Bren on? There has been lots of panic buying and selling.

A new cutlass for me (bit of a mystery so far):

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And a project piece (an 1853 Enfield rifled musket, this one from the Royal Nepalese Armoury):

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LOTS of hard work later:

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There's still lots to do but I'm going to leave it as-is for a while as it's all new ground for me, such as re-seating the barrel in the stock, fixing splits in the wood, rebuilding lost sections of stock, and so on.
 
maccapacca said:
Awesome work. I have no real patience for that sort of thing. I just make sure they aren't getting any worse and store them.

Me I'm not panicking.
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I think it'll work out okay in the end and the value of your collection will go up, hopefully.

thep02 said:
I wonder if anyone has actually been shot with an antique, I'm guessing not, they'll come back with intimidation during a robbery no doubt but surely a toy or a £30 ornamental gun would be a crims choice over a £1000 pin fire which would look comical to any hold up victim and be a danger to anyone who made bullets to fire from it.

A gas pipe with some fireworks and fishing weights shoved in it with a touch hole would be a better weapon than any antique imho.
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Mine is long past its shooting days, if it even saw any in the first place. :)
 
Wow, what a story! And that's why you always measure the barrel against the ramrod then ram home to see if anything's in the 'chamber'! What happened to his collection?
 
There was some serious values there, I hope he got some good deals. I'd love a Baker but I doubt I'll ever be able to own one, sadly.
 
A new arrival, this time it's a mysterious cutlass:

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This seems to be an 1860 Italian heavy cavalry hilt married to a blade that I cannot identify. It's a short sword but it's a beast and I can quite imagine clambering over to the enemy's deck and knocking out some teeth.
 
Oooh, missed your latest purchases, Macca! I do want a TT30/TT33 but just haven't got around to it, really. How are you liking it?

The Sten is pretty cool too - from D&B? He was selling some off quite cheaply recently.

I did some cleaning this week and thought I'd take a pic:

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Major points to anyone who can name them all :)
 
theleg said:
Anyone know how legit the worldwidearms swords are?
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WWA is well-known as a bit of a minefield (pun intended!). Any sword they list as unique is usually a genuine antique; any sword they list as a pattern or model is almost certainly a reproduction. It's a very annoying way of doing business, I feel. Reproductions have their place and there's no shame in them so why not avoid confusion and call an item what it actually is?

Out of interest, what are you after?

Cosimo said:
What a great collection, :cool: You need to hang them all on one wall.
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Thanks! I have much of it on walls around the house, with 7 around the PC as my man-space. :)
 
Did you get anything in the end, theleg?

I recently picked up my first Wilkinson. The quality is amazing and I can't wait to research the original owner (about 1875, in date). Plus, it's been sharpened.

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thep02 said:
You're probably all subscribers anyway but Hickok45 does at least one really good yt video of a sten gun, amongst thousands of others.

https://youtu.be/jt70ilN_PgU
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He's great, as is Forgotten Weapons.

pcfarrar said:
Does it have the owners name on the blade?

Mike Noble has a few interesting British swords on his website at the moment. He really knows his stuff and is a nice chap.

http://www.mjnoble.co.uk/
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No owner's name, but most Wilkinsons have a serial number on the blade's spine as the company used it to record who they sold their swords to. Some of the records are minimal but some are quite enlightening.

Thanks for that dealer - I haven't seen him before. :)
 
I got a good hit on my Wilkinson - a British officer who rose to the rank of colonel and fought very actively in the India frontier of the Empire for decades. He's mentioned in a few books too. No wonder he bought the best quality fighting sword available - and had it sharpened!

Also, a new purchase has come in, but can anyone identify what's unusual about it?

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The dark colour is a beautiful black patina - hardly any rust or proper pitting at all.

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