Hi guys, found this during a house clearing. The Great grandfather of said owner was in Africa during WWII which made me think some kind of bayonet?
Ideas?
Swiss mark??
Ideas?
Swiss mark??
Identifying a blade I found
- Thread starter Polecatsteve
- Start date
It's definitely a fighting knife/bayonet purely for the blood groove. The cross stamp should make it identifiable but it isn't one I've seen before
Any chance of putting a measuring tape next to that for accurate scale? Looks short for bayonets of the time. Same pattern as the SMLE bayonet and that would fit with the Africa reference as some of the LRDG didn't adopt the Lee Enfield no4 (and its spiked bayonet) and stuck with the SMLE but it looks a bit too short for that
Sitting about 10" long. No plans at all mate. Just curious about it.
Was in that card bread knife sleeve in a drawer. Nearly got skipped
Can I suggest you post a thread over on British Blades. www.britishblades.com/forums/
There are a few knowledgeable knife bods on there....
There are a few knowledgeable knife bods on there....
Just found out great great grandfather served WWI also. So could be older than 1st thought. If anyone can link this thread on British blades would be appreciated. Not setup on that.
I agree that it looks like a variant on the m-series bayonet. A ton of countries have slight variants on it, with a variety of blade lengths also. The blade on yours appears to be about 7.5", and AFAIK all of the American ones were longer or shorter. I think I do recall a 7.5" one though. Will see if I can find info.
It's up on BB now in case someone there knows anything about it. It's got me curious this one
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I think I found it. German bayonet - made by Klaas?
Site had it listed as Klaas Fireman short dress bayonet
Very like it, but not it. Klaas (and the majority of other german bayonets and fighting knives) have a skeletonised full tang. That's been a stick tang. Most countries also tapered their stick tangs (you'll see that on the PAL posted below if you take it's handle off) again that should make it easier to identify. But instead it's maddeningly unhelpful
not a SMLE bayonette (actually have one from the boer war era) the SMLE bayonettes (and all british bayonettes right up through WW2) the guard tang, pommel and blade are all one peice with the handle simple scales riveted on and do not have fullers (aka blood groves) at least pre WW2 ones (can't remember if the service bayonette from WW2 had a fuller but I know the one made for home guard units didn't) (though in the one I got it's hard to tell if the guard and blade are one peice or two as it spent deccades buried under the ground)
the stamp on the tang looks like a german or possibly swiss stamp
as there is no sign of rivits on the handle then I would say it is most likely a knife not a bayonet, (as most bayonets of the period used a simalar design for the handle, (namely a pommel that was part of the tang, with a pin on one side to connect to the spring mechanism, with the tang retaining the full width of the blade)
though with all that said it does bare some resemblance to the german made bayonets issued to the ottoman turks during WW1. but after extensive search can't find any matches for service issue bayonets in any military, so it's most likely a knife, which could be harder to find out as it could be a service issue or a civilian knife
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