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Anyone got a scabbard stripped down in front of them, can tell me the wall thickness of the scabbard. Am about to convert a standard scabbard to long RFI L1A1 length by adding/tig welding an oval extension. Unless anyone had an old battered scabbard that can be cut-and-shut as they say in the world of car ringing!
Hmmm....approx .90mm/.035" this being probably an Australian scabbard and measured with a 'Blue-Point' digital caliper. Scabbard is painted but not that thick....takes about a minute to remove the screw and gently work the throat and spring out. I need to clean the thing anyhow. It's nasty as can be inside!
This a standard steel/brass throated No.5/L1A1 scabbard
Thanks. I have stripped and thrown out about a million i my service life but never had to extend one. Hence the request for info. If anyon's interested, the mouthpiece screw is 6BA countersunk machine head screw, cut to length
Sounds like an interesting project Peter, any chance of a few pics?
I measured, with a micrometer, a genuine British issue No5 scabbard and found it to be .036"/20SWG thickness, so the same as Havenot's.
I did try Peter's conversion a couple of years ago and while the idea did work, I only have access to a mig welder which isn't the best welder for this job. The main problems were distortion caused by the heat of the weld and avoiding "blow through" while maintaining a good weld.
Another possibility that I have thought about is the possibility of converting an existing long steel scabbard by shortening it, if necessary, rather than adding on, to produce a scabbard suitable for for the long Indian SLR bayonet. I was lucky in obtaining a genuine long Indian scabbard for my Indian SLR bayonet pictured here. One possibility that I thought may be a contender, but there may be others, is the long Swiss steel scabbard. The one pictured here I tweeted slightly in order that it would fit a Finnish Mosin Nagant bayonet that had no scabbard. The Swiss scabbard does taper slightly on the sides, it would need shortening and, obviously, would need a frog button added and, obviously, I can't confirm how suitable it would be for conversion.