- My both pictures [attached together] show a Romanian knife bayonet for the Romanian made Kalashnikov [officially called "PM-63"] which fires the 7.62X39 rimless M-43 cartridge. I had this type of weapon and bayonet back in Romania during my 16-month mandatory military service [1974-76].



---> The bayonet is well made having grips manufactured of red composition material. There is a rubber sleeve at the scabbard for isolation if the bayonet is used to cut electric wires. The unfullered Bowie type blade has a 59mm long section with 34 teeth to cut metal. The blade has a small cut-out [13 X 6 mm] which joins the lug located at the scabbard tip to cut wire.

There is a wrist strap which has a double buckle and in army we used to take this piece of leather away from the bayonet and fix it around our wrist to look nice. The wrist leather strap is secured at the hole in the hilt [diameter = 7mm] and by the crosspiece hook.

The crosspiece is fixed to the bayonet blade by 2 rivets. Most of these Romanian AKM knife bayonets have a matching serial number on the crosspiece and scabbard but it's not quite unusual if there is no serial number marked.
Bayonet dimensions:
Blade length = 150mm;
Overall length = 279mm;
Muzzle ring [interior] diameter = 18mm;
Blade width [at crosspiece] = 29mm;
Blade thickness [at crosspiece] = 3.5mm

Orita 08/10/08

Nice bayonet.
Do you also have the leather frog?

- @ jdeleur: Yes, I do. I think I have only 2 of them, not enough for each bayonet I got. Orita 08/11/08

Do you know if the green nylon frog is als for the Romanian AKM1 bayonet?
You see these less often.

- @ jdeleur: I've never seen a Romanian AKM bayonet with green nylon frog. Orita 08/12/08

I talking about the green frog shown.

- @ jdeleur: When I was in army back in Romania [1974-76], we had a leather belt loop which was attached to the scabbard by a carbine clip. It was a very simple but good method of attachment. Years later the leather frog was introduced. The green frog is something new for me. Thanks for the nice photo. Orita 08/13/08

The carbine clip you mention is that the same as found on al other AKM1 type bayonets?

- @ jdeleur: Yes! Orita 08/14/08

Here is a picture of the bayonet during the Romanian revolution of 1989

- @ Jdeleur: Nice photo but it was not taken during the "Romanian revolution" which actually was nothing but a "coup d'etat". The Romanian revolution took place during the month of December 1989 [it started in Timisoara on December 17th or 18th and in Bucharest on December 21st and ended on Christmas Day on December 25th when Nicolae Ceausescu and his sinister ugly wife Elena died facing a firing squad in the town of Tirgoviste] and in December in Romania is VERY COLD. The guy from the photo has a summer uniform with the rank of "Fruntas" [PFC => Private First Class] or "Sergent" [Sergeant], it's hard to be precise looingk to that photo. The weapon is the Romanian made AKM [caliber 7,62mm firing the 7.62X39 M43 rimless cartridge] with the typical foregrip and the model with the folding stock [M-1971]. I had in army the same weapon too. The weapon from the photo has the safety on the upper position [on "S" => "Sigur" / safe] and cannot be fired and the detachable box magazine used has the capacity of 30 rounds. Note on the left arm the band with the Romanian flag [the colors are: red, yellow and blue] but the communist symbol ["Stema" - in Romanian language] is NOT on the yellow color which means the band was manufactured after the fall of communism [December 1989]. The bayonet is correct but in 1974-76 when I served in the Romanian army the system which attaches the bayonet to the belt was different [I mentioned above in my lines]. The leather belt is the correct one and the belt buckle is the brass model with the "Stema" and "RSR", I had the same model in army service too. This type of belt buckle was made after 1965 and I have it today in my collection. Orita 08/23/08

Thanks fot the explanation of this picture.
I captured it on the net a while ago with the description that this picture was taken during the "coup d'etat".

@Orita: What kind of helmet does the soldier on the picture wear?

- @ Meut: It has to be the Mod.1973 which is based on the shape of the Dutch helmet. I had the helmet Mod.1973 in army and I hated it. We were required to wear it sometimes at the shooting range, it depended on the officer who was on duty at the military range. Orita 08/23/08

Thanks Orita.