Customer Reviews

Bayonets from Janzen's Notebook

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Excellent reference for the collector or dealer anent bayonets of the world. Text is concise and terse, so one does not have to wade through extraneous data. Price is a bargain for the contents.

If you only can have one bayonet book THIS IS IT. 99% of the blade bayonets you will encounter are here with excellent drawings and concise text. The price is a bargain considering the information provided and comparing to the other "bibles" (even if you could find a copy of them). The late Mr. Janzen was one of the founders of the Society of American Bayonet Collectors and generous with his knowledge. Don't miss this resource, many of these types of books go out of print.

Great reference book for all bayonet's collectors,with hundred of illustrations and somes interesting notes about every model.Excellent for the novice collector!.

This book is excellent but measurements are not included because Janzen states "Measurements are given only for sockets and other pieces where relevant because the references listed provide more precise data than my ruler". The fact that Janzen states "The illustrations are not to any scale", makes this doubly frustrating because the line drawings are otherwise superb.

I have made efforts to track down his major references, but these are out of print, and may only be available in the New York Public Library or the Library of Congress.

Under each item the reference, including Vol and page# is given and could be the basis for an ambitious followup by someone who is willing to do the worthwhile work of transcribing the measurements from the source listed onto each selection and redrawing or digitally altering each illustration to scale.

I have only one bayonet book and this is it. It has never failed me in identifying the oddball bayonet that turns up at a flea market or auction. This thing is the size of a phone book. I have the original 1st edition and later discovered that many errors were corrected in a later edition. So if your copy does not have an errata section in the back, try to get this info and mark up your copy. Like many seminal works, Janzen laid the groundwork and people built on it to add details and correct earlier assumptions. This to me is the true mark of a scholarly work.

At first you think what did I get, I mean the book doesn't have pictures just drawings of bayonets but it has helped me identify few bayonets so far and I am extremely happy about this book.

This is a must have book for the military bayonet collector. Line drawings of hundreds of examples of bayonets from all over the world. Great to id unknown bayonets.