Here's my piece found in central Transylvania along with a M1917 austro-hungarian trench knife. I don't know much about it. My guess is early 16th century, but I might be wrong. I still need to clean it.

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So that´s a Bauerwehr with the longer blade, right?

Hi Ozsváth,

Thats a lovely find. Looks like a late 15th or early 16thC piece to me, the step down from the back of the blade to the handle is typical of Bauerwehr from your part of the world. I would love to see the nagel from another view, it looks to me like a ring with hollow tube elements in it - I love that feature on these knives.

Have you got a picture from the side?

Tod

I will try to make some photos these days. That little piece comes out and it has two holes on it. It reminds me of a skull with eye sockets. I'm surprised it was so well preserved. I've seen ww2 bayonets in much worse condition.
I'm planning to clean it with electrolysis which is not an invasive method and removes only the rust while keeping the metal untouched. I can't do it right now because my kids are running around all the time and besides it's a very dirty process.

Indeed, based on your description the nagel form would point to end of 15th - beginning of 16t century. Several of these are preserved in collections in Czech (and Moravian) museums. Here´s one article that might be of interest -
http://www.arup.cas.cz/wp-content/uploads/201...73-556.pdf (pages 130 (501) and following)
It´s in Czech, but has a short resume in English and some interesting pictures.
(Btw the author, Mr Zakovsky, is a big authority on these types of weapons.)