Hey B, looking good. Blade sharpened?
The tip is extremely sharp and the sides are angled (not sharp as bayos aren't meant to) but way better then any of my CZ858 bayos
Hey B, looking good. Blade sharpened?
Yeah, this one looks plastic...good eye!Yup except mine has a finished blade and real leather belt loop (not plastic)
^^On top of it are they not all the 556 variant stateside?
Also, $80 for this thing is friggin steep as f**k! I bought M1 Garand bayos from TradeEx for like $15-20 a piece a few years ago and they were the real deal, not some embellished Chi-Com can opener... damn!
![]()
Are these bayos purpose built for some ceremonial purposes, like the "Chinese Propaganda and Pride Parade" or something?
The scabbard looks like it has WAY too much "bling" on it for any tactical military use. Even the green portion reflects light like a well buffed car. Enemy snipers/spotters would simply look for the reflection, lol... can't be the real deal, folks. If it is though, then it's the dumbest and most thoughtless military bayo scabbard in history, bar none. Seriously, it looks like something made for the duty-free tourist shop and marketed as a "survival knife" on the plastic bag.
Also, $80 for this thing is friggin steep as f**k! I bought M1 Garand bayos from TradeEx for like $15-20 a piece a few years ago and they were the real deal, not some embellished Chi-Com can opener... damn!
![]()
Ah that's super
Everything was cheaper "a few years ago" in the milsurp world. What do those Garand bayo's go for these days?!
Well I got my bayonet in - it's one of the $30 e-bay ones.
Some observations:
-Pommel and Hilt are investment cast ferric steel. Outer surfaces are left as-cast with evidence of where the sprue tails were removed, but all critical surfaces where the parts meet the blade, handle or lockup slot are machined. They are finished in a gloss black powder coat.
-The Blade itself looks to also be investment cast from a high nickel content steel. It's not a highly corrosion resistant stainless like 416L, it's got a higher carbon content than that and only barely will take bluing solution if abraded while exposed to bluing salts. The resultant blue was not durable and wiped off with little effort, so for all intents and purposes the blade is stainless. There are a few hints of the casting process in the fullers near the hilt. The blade was fully machined and likely heat treated. It did not appreciably bend in the vice when held 1cm from the tip and a 40 ftlbs lateral force applied. An untreated blade would likely have have bent at the hilt or blade tip. Also, the blade has a continuous tang and is both pinned and screwed to the pommel.
-The handle is NOT a thermosetting plastic (i.e. bakelite). It looks to be a more ductile plastic, likely a polypropylene variant.
-the scabbard, while well made, is also polypropylene with a vinyl leather frog. There is a stainless steel chape spring in the scabbard to retain the bayonet by friction.
This was not made to be a toy or airsoft. It's made to actually function on a real rifle and to survive a high degree of abuse. Where it's cheaply finished (i.e. surfaces left rough cast), it's in non-essential areas that don't interface with the rifle. All the areas that were machined were machined uniformly with minimal tool chatter and look to have been done in standardized fixtures.
I would suggest, that if these were not made for the PLA, they may have been made for another government entity (police, foreign gov sales, etc.). Or they might just be a more modern version of the PLA bayonet made with cost-savings in mind using less expensive and newer technologies than older bayonets. Hard to say.
To summarize, if I may, "It's Chinese issue kit, it was built to function as a weapon, not to look good" - that about right?
To summarize, if I may, "It's Chinese issue kit, it was built to function as a weapon, not to look good" - that about right?
I would say that's about right. It was built to be issued to someone - it's not a cheap replica and functions in all the places where it matters.