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These are my latest arrivals, a Vietnam era M1917 and a M1905 that I believe has been WW2 refurbed. The M1917 has a very slight downward bend to the blade. Is this normal, please? I am no expert on U.S. bayonets and i wondered if these 2 bayos look like legitimate originals and not reproductions. Obviously, it was my understanding when purchasing that the M1905 has been refurbed and updated for WW2. Thanks for any info and help.
Look good to me. This site may help you tremendously
Bayonet Points
Sadly the author passed recently
The 1905 was likely redone for WW2 as the scales are originally walnut and those are now bakelite...and it's been refinished. They would have been issued black as of a date in 1917 I think it was, before that they had bright blades. It could also have been redone again by someone else, I've done my share of those for sure. No scabbard?
My Vietnam era blade has a very slight downward bend. Yours looks to be bent more than mine but I expect is it normal production. Pretty hard to bend a blade that way.
The M1917 bayonet is the same pattern as the P13 bayonet produced for the P14 Enfield. When Winchester decided to produce the trench gun version of their Model 97 shotgun they were already producing the P13 bayonet for the British. In fact you can occasionally find M1917 bayonets with both British and US marks. Even long after the M1917 Enfield went out of service the M1917 bayonet remained on US shot guns. It was not until the Army adopted the Mossberg with the magazine cap adapted to mount the same bayonet as the M16 (M7 at the time) that shotgun bayonet changed.
Unfortunately, the M1917 came with no scabbard, Jim, but it does almost completely fit the USN MK1 scabbard that I've mentioned elsewhere on this Forum. It's only binding in the throat area of the scabbard slightly and could probably be opened out to suit. I will probably hold off altering this scabbard for a bit in case the correct M1917 scabbard turns up. Will post a picture shortly.
My mistake, I remember the other thread now. I didn't pay attention to the small pics of blade in scabbard. The 1905 has the scabbard and the 1917 has none... I doubt you'll find a spare fiber scabbard for the 1917. Why not just procure a leather 1917 scabbard...or was that what we talked about?Quote:
Originally Posted by Flying10uk
I think that the consensus was that it should have a plastic scabbard and the leather one would be incorrect. Spare leather M1917 scabbards are not very common over here unless you wish to buy one with a bayonet in it. The last spare M1917 leather scabbard that I was able to pick up had a rare Winchester P1913 bayonet in it that the dealer miss-sold to me as a M1917 bayonet, presumably because of the scabbard. I put the P1913 bayo into a 1907 scabbard and used the M1917 scabbard with a M1917 bayonet.
Here is the M1917 bayo in the U.S.N. MK1 scabbard. This scabbard appears to be just about identical to the one that came with the M1905 bayonet, apart from the markings. The M1905 fits the MK1 scabbard fine.
Maybe not the leather scabbard then...but definitely don't alter that scabbard for the 1917 blade. No one would ever be fooled and it would just be destroying a good scabbard... If you keep watch on line, there are people that have this sort of thing, Collectors Firearms , Hayes Otoupalik, Simpson Ltd, http://www.stewartsmilitaryantiques.com/ Just to show a few. You might find one.