Nice find underground

ReservoirDog707

ReservoirDog707

Joined
Apr 26, 2018
Messages
47
So, i was a plumber for a few years, and i live near san francisco in a city called Vallejo, attatched to it is an island called Mare Island. For over 100 years it was a naval base, a quite important one. It built battle ships and was very integral to the war effort during WWII. So Vallejo was a major navy town for a long time. There was tons of navy housing built that is now low income housing tracts. I would find tons of weird and old stuff doing underground plumbing in the bay area but in vallejo in particular, coins, bottles, trinkets, old old old abandon lines etc. But when replacing the sewer lines for one of these old navy housing tracts about 5 miles from the crossing to Mare Island, i found a chunk of metal about 6 feet under ground. After cleaning off mud and worse, I came to realise I had found a knife. It didnt take long to realise it was actually an old bayonet. So I took it home, cleaned it best I could, and I could just barely make out a makers mark on the bottom of the blade, just above the tang, almost like a daisy. I found out that its a japanese bayonet, one of probobly hundreds of thousands made for WWII. Its not particularly rare, but I think its pretty awsome. Heres a couple pictures. Hope you guys enjoy my little story :D

If you look at the first picture, just a couple inches above the tang, you can barely make oit that little marking.
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Pretty cool find and that sound like a good place for one to metal detect, I've never been to mares island but have been to vallejo many many times over the past 20 years.
I live a couple hours away in colusa county 45 min north of Sacramento not that you're likely to have heard of it.
 
Hickory n steel said:
Pretty cool find and that sound like a good place for one to metal detect, I've never been to mares island but have been to vallejo many many times over the past 20 years.
I live a couple hours away in colusa county 45 min north of Sacramento not that you're likely to have heard of it.
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Yea ive heard of it, never been though. Dont go that way often :D
 
Hickory n steel said:
Well you're in luck, because there's absolutely nothing here to see but a whole crap load of orchards :D
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Lmao thats pretty much the entire central valley :D but thats were all the food comea from! Im surprised that bayonet did so well unser griund for so long, has a layer of rust but its solid and doesnt look like it lost much weight or material. Its in damn good condition considering where its been the past 60 or so years
 
Nice find! I'm just a couple towns over in Vacaville, but the only time I've actually stopped on Mare Island was when my son and I went to a BattleBots taping :).

~Chip
 
WValtakis said:
Nice find! I'm just a couple towns over in Vacaville, but the only time I've actually stopped on Mare Island was when my son and I went to a BattleBots taping :).

~Chip
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Awsome! I didnt know they filmed battlebots on mare island ever! I go to vacaville to shoot occasionally at the gun store right off the highway.
 
kwackster said:
Looks like a Japanese type 30 bayonet for the Arisaka Type 30 rifle.
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It definitey appears to be an Arisaka bayonet.

Strangely all the pics I could find of the arisaka bayonets the guard doesn’t touch the blade as in the OPs found example. It was probably bent in at some point.

s-l300.jpg
 
The guard on this bayonet is most definitely bent.
I once owned that same type 30 bajonet in much better condition, and it also had the same three circles stamp.
Forgot to which arsenal the stamp points exactly, would have to google.
 
Thanks for the info guys! Its cool to see one thats put together:D yea definately looks like the guard is bent, and the wooden handle probobly just disentagrated lol.
 
I was excited when found it, but even more wxcited when i found the odd little makers mark, and traced it to WWII, but from what i read their pretty common since they were mass produced. But to find one underground near old navy housing here in California is pretty awsome. Makes me wonder about the story behind it. Maybe a soldiers souvenir from the war? Ill never know lol
 
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