M1895 Serial Numbers

With some of the bajonet.be forum members (especially Kilian) we tried to figure out if it was possible to date each Dutch M1895 bayonet. We also tried to gather more information about the Inspection Markings which each M1895 bayonet has been marked with. Although this research is still ongoing on bajonet.be I will describe its latest findings here on www.muetstege.com 

A batch of M.95 rifles/bayonets consisted out of 10.000 rifles/bayonets. These weapons were applied with a serial number and a serial character. The character "I" was not to be used because it could be mistaken for a "1". The first batch of M1895 rifles/bayonets received the serial numbers and serial character starting from 0A until 9999A, the second batch 0B until 9999B, etc, etc.

There are also rifles/bayonets known which had a double serial character, however this makes sense when you want to give 470.000 M1895 rifles/bayonets a serial number/serial character. A total of approx. 470.000 M1895 rifles were made.

During the (still ongoing) research the following have been noticed:

M1895 "Rifle" Bayonets:
- with one serial character (A,B,E,F,H,J,K,L,M,O,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z)
- with two serial characters (AA, BB,CC,DD,FF,GG,HH,JJ,KK,LL,MM,NN,QQ,RR)

M1895 "Navy" Bayonets:
- without serial characters

M1895 "Carbine No.3 & No.4" Bayonets:
- with one serial character (A,B,D,F,G,K,L,M)

M1895 "KNIL" & "Carbine No.1 NM" Bayonets:
- with one serial character (C,N,P)

M1895 "Rifle" Bayonets Serial Characters and Production Years:
Before 1905:         J
           1905:        M
           1914:        W
           1915:        X
      1915/16:        Y
           1916:        Z
    Aug 1916:        AA
    late 1916:        CC
     Jan 1917:        FF
           1917:        LL
    Aug 1917:        MM
           1917:        NN
    Dec 1917:        QQ
     Jan 1918:        RR

This information is still being researched by some of the forum members on www.bajonet.be and can change if more data comes available. I especially want to thank Kilian Belderbos for his research and approval to mention his research on this site. 

Scabbards:
Most of all the leather scabbards were marked with the same serial number as the bayonet but without the serial character. A lot of of the leather scabbards are marked with either "CW" (Delft) or "AI" (Zaandam). Once a leather scabbard needed to be repaired it was send to one of these workshops. Normally the soldier received another leather scabbard as a permanent replacement. Once the leather scabbard got repaired the old serial number was striped-out and a new serial number, which was the same to the new bayonet, was stamped at the backside of the integrated leather frog of the scabbard.
  
"CW" = 1679-1900: Artillierie Constructie Winkel, Delft (NL)
"CW" = 1900: Constructie Werkplaatsen Artillerie, Delft (NL)
"AI"   = 1900: Artillerie Inrichtingen Hembrug, Zaandam (NL)

"D"    = Unknown inspection stamp
"Z"    = Unknown inspection stamp

                       

         

More info about Inspection-markings can be found here