PSS Police Bayonet Collection

[Eric Von Rader]

And there is no question that Ron’s P.S.S. bayonet is indeed a beautiful example. But I also know that the quality of the P.S.S. bayonets varies, and that it is not necessarily better if you are looking at it in terms of fit and finish. With what I am referring to being the basic bayonet minus the nickel plating. With some of the 84/98 military/other contract makers keeping the high polish blued finish into 1942 with consistently better fitting components (I'm disregarding the stag grips in the comparison, although it could be something that is looked at). But this is just my own general opinion from a manufacturing point of view. Fred

FP, I disagree with you on the quality aspect, I have owned dozens of standard police bayonets by all kinds of makers. The PSS bayonets are not only of better finish and quality but much harder to make. JMO

[Frogprince]

FP, I disagree with you on the quality aspect, I have owned dozens of standard police bayonets by all kinds of makers. The PSS bayonets are not only of better finish and quality but much harder to make. JMO

Eric, I have to go out again this morning on some errands, and I will be thinking about what Joe said as some additional new information. That said, I think you may have misinterpreted my comment. As I was speaking of the 84/98 bayonets which have a very close fitting bayonet catch that I can’t get a .004 mm feeler gauge into the clearance gap. And the bayonet catch itself is flush with the pommel. The same cannot be said for many of the P.S.S. bayonets. Unfortunately I'm out of time, and the harder to make part will have to wait until I get back. Regards, Fred

[Billy G]

With respect to fit & finish, I've owned a few dozen police bayonets (about 2 dozen of which were Weimar cut downs) & 3 PSSs & there's no comparison to the quality differential, the PSS being superior to the standard Polizei Seitengewehr (PS) IMHO.

The PSSs I've had were all near mint but one gets a sense of the attention to detail when holding a PSS in hand. That's not to say the reconditioned Weimar Polizei bayonets were poorly made, not at all, but just that there seems to have been even more attention to everything. Of course one thing that comes to mind is that the PS pieces were carried for a longer period of time but even taking this into account, the PSS still seems superior in manufacture. To me at least

[Frogprince]

Billy, If you are comparing the P.S.S. to the regular P.S. that is fine with me. I was speaking to the Police 84/98’s. As for the P.S. conversions themselves, I think it’s a matter of personal preference, personally across the board liking OEM types more for most of what I collect.

But to get back to Eric’s statement: “but much harder to make” if it is about comparing P.S.S. to P.S. conversions then I don’t really have a problem with that either. But if it instead is making a reference to my earlier statement: “the recycling of an existing bayonet (the 98/05) is a lot faster and cheaper than making a new one from scratch ..........” then we might have some disagreement. Which I would be happy to elaborate on if anyone sees it differently. Regards, Fred

[Eric Von Rader]

If you all know of any examples for sale I'm interested!