My name is actually Gary Cunningham, and I chose Bayonetman as my Ebay screen name when they began using them, and it has sort of stuck. I am a student and collector of US military bayonets with an emphasis on the Model 1905 and M1 bayonets.
I started out collecting Civil War arms and accouterments with the encouragement of my scoutmaster back in the mid-1950s. For years I collected practically anything connected with the US Infantryman, but a number of financial problems finally caused me to sell most of the non-edged part of the collection. I continued to collect the bayonets, and to a more limited extent other US edged weapons and tools. My reference collection currently has about 150 bayonets, although of course a large percent are simply marking variations (I have 23 M1 bayonets).
The reasons I decided to stay with bayonet collecting was (1) They are reasonably plentiful with a lot of variations, (2) They don't take up a great deal of space, (3) They are not normally subject to as many laws and regulations as firearms, and (4) They were relatively cheap. Reason 4 has changed a lot in the last 5-10 years, and some bayonets now bring as much or more as the firearms they were made to fit.
I was encouraged by a couple of friends to revise my bayonet notebook and put it in book form. I was out of work for some time due to health reasons so I had some time to spend putting everything together, and in 1997 Scott Duff was kind enough to publish the book, titled American Military Bayonets of the 20th Century. I also write a column called Bayonet Points on Frank Trzaska's website
www.usmilitaryknives.com. Many people have been kind enough to contact me with information, from single facts to large bodies of information. My goal is to pass this on to other collectors in hopes that I can add somewhat to the body of knowledge on the subject. I certainly don't know it all, and am always glad to hear from other collectors who wish to share their knowledge.
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