I know there's a few Kalashnikov bayonet collector folk on the forum and a first post with this on the forum might be interesting to some. Finally got a camera I'm satisfied with and had some time to take photos of a rarely seen bird - the Romanian Type II bayonet. It's probably one of the most uncommon and likely rare bayonets in the Kalashnikov bayonet collecting community. It's estimated there's probably about three or four collectors out there known to have one and the known serial numbers fall within about 200. A definate hard-to-get piece.

Without further delay, here's some reference photos. One might note the scabbard is somewhat similar to a Russian Type II Izhevsk factory scabbard but it's slightly different. I'll try to do a complete photographic line of evolution/unusual variants of the Romanian Kalashnikov bayonets in the near future:

(if you're going to save the photos and post them somewhere later, I don't have a problem but at least give some credit for them. )

In scabbard


Outside of scabbard (left side)


Outside of scabbard (right side)


View of the serial numbers


View of the factory mold markings


Scabbard


"C" stamping with light inspector stamping either side of crossguard

welcome to the forum Rayman
Jdeleur (Jeffrey) is a collector of this kind of bayonets.

Nice bayonet in excellent condition.
I like the quality of your pictures as well, what camera did you use?

Thank you for the welcome. I'm a collector of the Kalashnikov bayonets and post on several Kalashnikov rifle forums. I found this site a few days ago and thought I'd help contribute information.

My camera is a Canon Powershot SD 1400 IS and I've found it takes great photos - the best digital camera I've purchased so far and I'm quite happy with it.

The bayonet is a unique one to be sure and darn impossible to find. I figured it would be nice to share some photos as most folks probably didn't know they existed. A fellow collector more knowledgeable about them believes there's a South African connection to them as a handful known were found there. Possibly a limited run for the Romanian military for the export version of the AIMS-74 rifle until it stopped for some reason - possibly too expensive/inefficient to continue and they were re-sold through a contract somewhere while the military stuck with the Type I sheath. So very little information on them.

Here's a photo of one in a Romanian museum - if you look close, you can see it on the wall:

As an interesting note, member "theothermonkeyboy" from The AK Forum introduced a photo he remembered from an article in an old, 1990's Soldier of Fortune magazine which featured a story regarding an export version Romanian AIMS-74 rifle purportedly recovered in South Africa. As he also pointed out, the rifle's serial number is within the same serial range and the painted finish on the rifle matches very similarly to the painted finish on the metal bits on the bayonet.

Here's a photo of the left side of one of the export AIMS-74 rifles:

Thank you Rayman for sharing the information !
Next time when i'm in Arizona i want to see the nice collection you have

Although it is not my cup of tea: I must say that musuem display looks nice