★ Bayonet | Blue Steel (Minimal Wear)

Skin overview

This is a restrained knife skin built on a single treatment: blued steel with a soft patina shift across the blade. Nothing on it is loud, which is the point. At Minimal Wear the finish is practically intact, and any marks are small enough to read as part of the metal rather than damage.

Item type: knife. Covert is the top weapon rarity: usually the most prominent items of a collection or case.

Patina: an aged metal surface; wear is part of the design, so the gap between qualities is less visible.

How the skin looks in Minimal Wear

The blade is covered in a dark cold-blued patina that ranges from near-black to a lighter steel blue, with the long fuller and the hole near the tip picking up the same tone. The colour is not perfectly uniform: patina skins vary the distribution of lighter and darker blue from copy to copy.

Tiny light marks may appear right on the cutting edge or at the very tip. They are hard to spot without inspecting the knife closely. At normal viewing distance it looks practically the same as Factory New. The flat of the blade, the fuller and the spine remain clean.

Minimal Wear quality — float range 0.07–0.15

The float of ★ Bayonet | Blue Steel ranges from 0 to 1; the Minimal Wear quality covers 0.07–0.15 — 8% of this skin’s scale. The lower the float within the range, the cleaner the surface looks and the higher a copy is usually priced.

Where the skin comes from: collection and case

It drops as a rare special item from:

• CS:GO Weapon Case (on sale since Sep 20, 2013)
• CS:GO Weapon Case 2 (on sale since Sep 20, 2013)
• CS:GO Weapon Case 3 (on sale since Sep 20, 2013)
• Operation Bravo Case (on sale since Sep 20, 2013)
• Winter Offensive Weapon Case (on sale since Dec 18, 2013)
• eSports 2013 Case (on sale since Jul 9, 2014)

And 5 more — souvenir packages and other sources.

Price by quality

Compared with the Minimal Wear quality, the others go like this:

• Factory New — 1.6× dearer
• Field-Tested — 20% cheaper
• Well-Worn — 21% cheaper
• Battle-Scarred — 24% cheaper

Based on the cheapest SkinOut.gg listing of each quality, otherwise on the market reference.

Among 23 skins of the Bayonet in the Covert grade and this quality, this skin ranks 11th by price, counting from the dearest.

StatTrak™ version

This skin has a the StatTrak™ version with a kill counter. Right now it is 15% dearer than the regular one.

What to check before buying

• Check where the float sits within the wear grade, since a low float keeps the edge and tip noticeably cleaner.
• Look at the inspect screenshot for the patina pattern, as the balance of dark and light blue differs between copies.
• Examine the cutting edge, spine and tip, because these lose the bluing first.
• Check for a name tag and whether it is a StatTrak™ version if either matters to you.

Who the Minimal Wear quality suits

• Buyers who want a near-clean look while saving compared to Factory New.
• Players who view the knife in game rather than up close in inspect.
• Conclusion: practically the Factory New look at a more reasonable grade.