M1 Bayonet

From Gary Cunningham's bayonet forum on the M1 Bayonet.

The bayonet was lighter and made the rifle quicker and more responsive in combat.
The bayonet was more useful in areas where space might be limited such as trenches and house to house fighting.
The bayonet was more useful as a weapon off the rifle in hand to hand combat.
The bayonet could serve as a general-purpose knife.
The savings in steel would amount to nearly 25% over that of the M1905.
It was noted that many of the European nations had adopted a shorter bayonet than what they had used in the 1st World War.

As a general-purpose knife it would have had to have some type of edge. I think it was also mentioned as above, they tried to strike a balance with getting an edge, just not too sharp.

Thanks for all the replies.

I have quite a number of bayonets in my collection. From various countries. None of them are that sharp. I purchased a new Ontario M7 bayonet, this is about the sharpest I have.Similar situation with my Eickhorn G3 bayonets. Which have a similar blade.

I suppose the modern soldier has to carry both his bayonet and a sharp knife!

Or he can sharpen his bayonet. I had to chuckle from a memory of a night long ago. There were half a dozen of us sleeping in a large tent during a training exercise and this new guy that was just with having left active duty for the reserves was sharing the tent. Most of us are trying to sleep and we hear this very distinctive sound of a wetstone on a blade and here's this guy no one knows sitting there sharpening his bayonet. Crusty old Warrant officer gave him hell, asked him if he was going to kill us in our sleep. It was his personal bayonet as we weren't issued them for this exercise. It did kind of freak me out at the time.

Yes, we had a few of those too...

try thr new OL3C marine knife, it is plenty sharp right out of the box, the M9 runs it 2nd but needs work to get the smae. Many modern "Commercial" bayonets liek the Stryder and Extrema Ratio are sharp as supplied and come with a hone to keep them that way. Goes to the change in perception as to the use of a Bayonet. These also dont tend to go to the basic troops but ones more likely to not cut themsleves by accident.

The M7 blades (C7 rifle) we issued the recruits were dull from use and sharpening was forbidden. The new blades were sharp and the idea was the troops no longer needed to carry a knife second to the bayonet. The new bayonet by Eikhorn is a beauty and sharp as issued. Like Carl says, it comes with sharpening device built in.

I discovered Eickhorn bayonets by mistake, fortunately. They make some nice stuff. i now have three bayonets and a trench knife. Please see http://www.eickhorn-solingen.de they even sell razors.

Once again the supreme toy makers. I know some young fellows would just wet themselves for the tanto point bayonet...