WWII Pacific Theater Excavated Japanese Type 30 Late War Straight Bayonet

Description

Comes with C.O.A.
This is a rare WWII Japanese Type 30 bayonet that is in relic form as it was excavated and dug off of a Pacific Theater island and battlefield from WWII. This bayonet shows average metal pitting, however, still maintains and overall good condition. The wood handle is fully decomposed and missing and the blade itself has the stamp of the Riken Kozai (Nagoya Diamond) still visible. The factory marker on this bayonet is very rare and a scarce maker, one source states this company had the smallest production of the type 30 bayonets, with only 250,000 produced. The blade has been professionally cleaned upon excavation to preserve the relic. While the full story of this bayonet will never be fully known, it was most likely forgot on the battlefield from a Japanese soldier, dropped by a surrendering Japanese soldier or left at a Japanese camp located within the island.
The Type 30 bayonet (三十年式銃剣, sanjūnen-shiki jūken) was a bayonet designed for the Imperial Japanese Army to be used with the Arisaka Type 30 Rifle and was later used on the Type 38 and Type 99 rifles. Some 8.4 million were produced, and it remained in front-line use from the Russo-Japanese War to the end of World War II. All Japanese infantrymen were issued with the Type 30, whether they were armed with a rifle or pistol, or even if they were unarmed.
The Type 30 Bayonet was a single-edged sword bayonet with a 400 millimetres (15.75 in) blade and an overall length of 514 millimetres (20.24 in) with a weight of approximately 700 grams. The Type 30 bayonet is also known as the “Pattern 1897 bayonet”. Early Type 30 bayonets usually sported a hooked quillion guard which was designed to catch and trap the enemy's blade. By 1942 the quillon was eliminated to save materials and decrease production time, leaving only a straight guard. Type 30 scabbards went from metal (pre-1942), to vulcanized fibre (1942-43), and finally to wood or bamboo (1944-45).