Original Item: Only One Available. The K-98 dress bayonet was a dress version of the combat style, and was worn by enlisted and NCO personnel for dress and parade occasions. The bayonets were finished with a high-quality nickel plating, with stag or bakelite grip plates and black painted scabbard. The choice of blade length was left to the purchaser, either the nickel-plated short (20cm) or long (25cm) version. There was usually a red or green colored felt insert in the rifle slot and the bayonet was suspended from a black or brown leather frog. Some had a functional bayonet latch, while it was ornamental on some.

This very interesting example is in very good condition, with the standard nickel plated blade showing some sharpening and use. It has has a nice zinc alloy hilt, which in this case has a hand engraved in the the "Plat" dialect spoken in Limburg, which is in the south east of the Netherlands, bordering Germany. The language there is more of a blend of Dutch and German, so it can be somewhat hard to translate. The engraving reads:

Tot het 25 jaarig
Huwelÿksfeest
Aang. door de
Ld van Limburg 1937
Heil Kruyt!

The other side of the hilt has a hand engraved Swas (hook cross) on it. The inscription seems to indicate that it was presented to commemorate a 25th Wedding anniversary or something similar in 1937. The "Heil Kruyt!" on the bottom is a reference to Major Cornelis Jacobus Aart Kruyt, one of the leaders of the Dutch NSNAP National Socialist party in the late 1930s.

The engraving on the hilt was done by hand post manufacture, and unfortunately has led much of the nickel plating on that side to flake away. The mortise button and blade release are fully functional, though the felt insert is missing. The grip plates are both lovely stag horn, and are in great condition with a lovely aged look. They are retained by solid nickel alloy rivets which have dressed heads on the obverse.

The blade on this example is nickel-plated, as were all dress bayonets, however it has had the main edge sharpened for use. We do not know if this was done during the WWII period or afterwards. The plating on the rest of the blade is still very well retained, and there is only minor oxidation where the plating has been abraded.

The reverse ricasso bears a stamped puma's head in a diamond above PUMA over SOLINGEN, the trademark logo of Lauterjung & Sohn, Puma-Stahlwarenfabrik / Puma - Werk of Solingen, Germany, the legendary "City of Blades". This company was originally founded on a small scale in 1796, Nathanael Lauterjung officially opened a cutlery and knife making workshop in Solingen during 1855. After his death, the name was changed and registered as "Puma-Werk", to avoid confusion with the other Lauterjung-owned workshops in Solingen. For more information, please see J. Anthony Carter's work GERMAN KNIFE AND SWORD MAKERS.

The scabbard is straight throughout, not showing any major dents, however it has lost most of the original black enamel paint due to wear. What remains is checked and crazed, as enamel of this age should be. It looks like it was held in a frog for a long time, however there was no frog included with the bayonet.

A very interesting personalized example of a German Long 98k dress bayonet by a well-known maker with fantastic stage grips and an aged steel scabbard. Definitely some great research potential here!

Specifications:
Blade Length: 9 3/4"
Blade Style: Single Edge w/ Fuller
Overall length: 14 5/8“
Crossguard: 2 1/4”
Scabbard Length: 10 1/2"

The National Socialist Dutch Workers Party (Nationaal-Socialistische Nederlandsche Arbeiderspartij) or NSNAP was a minor Dutch NSDAP party founded in 1931 and led by Ernst Herman van Rappard. Seeking to copy the fascism of others, notably Adolf H, the group failed to achieve success and was accused by rivals such as the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB) and the General Dutch Fascist League of being too moderate for a fascist movement.

Political pin of the National Socialist Dutch Workers Party.
The group looked to the NSDAP for its inspiration, setting up its own Storm Trooper battalion in imitation of the Sturmabteilung and its own Holland Youth like the H Jugend, as well as copying the black swas (hook cross) in a white circle on a red background as its emblem. Unlike its far-right counterparts, who claimed to endorse Dutch patriotism, the NSNAP sought full incorporation of the Netherlands into the Third Reich, a policy which won it little support as the 998 votes which the party captured in the 1937 election demonstrated. Unlike the NSB, the NSNAP focused on antisemitism, and denounced the NSB as a Jewish-dominated, pseudo-National Socialist organization.

Van Rappard was unable to hold the party together and before long three separate group were claiming the NSNAP name, one under Major Cornelis Jacobus Aart Kruyt and the other under Albert van Waterland (who had dropped his real surname of de Joode as it meant 'the Jew'). This factionalism in what was already a small party ensured that Alfred Rosenberg, who had considered the possibility of supporting the group with German money, lost interest and so the three NSNAPs faded from significance.

The NSNAP did not gain from the German invasion of 1940 as the German authorities chose Anton Mussert of the rival NSB as their main beneficiary and Major Kruyt's version of the party merged into Mussert's movement in late 1940. The NSNAP finally disappeared altogether on December 14, 1941 when Arthur Seyss-Inquart banned all parties except the NSB. With van Rappard on active service with the Waffen-SS most of the remaining NSNAP members accepted the decision and switched their support to Mussert.