1917 Bayonet barrel hole out of round

I recently purchased a 1917 bayonet off ebay. The pictures were a bit dark so I took a bit of a gamble. It looked like some surface rust but I wasn't expecting the amount of rust that it has.

Honestly though, not that big of a deal at this point. I liked the fact that it was still relatively dark. Most I see on ebay have the blade portion in the white. The grips also were in pretty good condition and weren't all chewed up. I basically only want this as an example and to occasionally put it on and admire it.

I go to put it on and it doesn't go on.... I take it off and look at the barrel hole and realize it's oval shaped.

At this point, should I just give up and return the item? Or is this something that's easily fixed? I don't want to mess with it yet in case I need to return it.

Definitely more rust than I would have expected from the pictures
http://www.ebay.com/itm/World-War-1-...vip=true&rt=nc

I'd use a large tapered punch and drive it down through the hole to round it out again. I don't think you can damage much. You need to support the ring when doing this. Have your vise open and the ring sitting on the top of the jaws, then hammer the taper down into the ring. Or...you can just send it back.

I don't have any fancy tools and I've straightened them out without difficulty. I don't have a taper, that would be real nice and I may have to get one. I just tapped it carefully with a hammer to get it back into round.

Maybe even a judicious squeeze with the vice and protected jaws. Wonder what Peter has to say about this one? Or Tankie or...

I must have fixed a zillion bayonet crosspieces as will Tankie and Skippy. Some will just dolly round on a decent mandrill, some, with a larger ring like the No5 will need a bit of heat but they allo seem to 'round' back to shape easily enough. They're only mild steel

Thank you for the advice! I was a bit nervous putting in a vice since I was afraid it might crack.

No, it won't crack.

phungn,

Barrel Hole normally referred as " Muzzle ring"

Depends on how much you paid..... they are not a rare bayonet and good examples can still be purchased for a reasonable amount, if you think the description was a bit off regarding the rust then I,d return it.

But if your keeping it I,m in the process or was doing a restoration on a bayonet that was in a similar state ( bayonet is a Patt 1903) except the blade was OK but had a lot of pitting and rust around the pommel and crosspiece , rust has been removed using electrolysis, will post it in the restorers corner in about a week, (have to go back to work this morning and have run out time and energy and beer) will send a PM when I post the thread.

As Peter has said. Myself & Skippy have repaired/ overhauled quite a 'Few' Bayonets of differing variants over the years!

The only thing to be aware of is. If a Bayonet crosspiece is bent. Sometimes they WILL snap when bending back! SLR variants are famous for this I can attest! If wood grips are fitted to bayonet with a bent crosspiece.
Remove them. & where possible, if the catch assembly is fitted. Unscrew the nuts & remove the whole ensemble. Heat travel WILL destroy the tempering of Coil & Flat springs!!!......

Heat will soften the metal of the cross piece & allow it to be bent back into the correct position again. After heating & allowing to cool down. You can either reheat & Oil Black. Or polish & re-Blue as desired.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED/ADVISED!.............;)