Bayonet Bonanza

I did wonder if it was an "idea" to wire/tie the bayonet to the rifle???- just a bit of lateral thinking by me. Has anyone got a No5 or No7 bayonet without this extra hole, please?

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Originally Posted by Flying10uk

I did wonder if it was an "idea" to wire/tie the bayonet to the rifle???-

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Let me just clarify that for you...NO! I was infantry, I promise you we didn't wire them on. Come down off whatever cloud you're on...

Taught to never assume, but assuming anyway, Since they are knife blades and more likely to be used as a knife rather than a bayonet, from a design perspective it would seem likely they were lanyard holes to prevent loss.

Glad I started this ball rolling. Some very fine Pork Piercers in this thread!

Never heard that, never taught that, MOST unlikely......... as regardless of use, when not in use, it'd be retained in the sprung lined scabbard (Thread 43)

I look at the presence of these small holes in the cross guard of my No5 & No7 bayonets from an engineer's perspective not a soldier's. I assume that they must have been included during production for a reason and so I start looking for possible explanations/solution from an engineer's perspective. Aragorn243 has made a very good suggestion as a likely reason for the holes being there looking at it from an engineer's viewpoint, possibly more likely than mine of wiring the bayonets onto the rifle.

Peter, I'm not suggesting it's a practical use or one that was ever recommended but designers often have ideas that seem good to them but never work in the real world. Only reason I suggest the possibility is that I purchased many years ago a US combat knife with a leather lanyard in the holes from the Army PX. Quickly removed it as it just seemed stupid.

The interior structure of the small hole looks like a drilled or bored hole to me whereas the outer edges and big hole look like they're sheared/pressed out. As indeed is the elongated blade hole in the new L1A1 and No5 crosspiece I'm holding in my hand at the moment. I'd say, on that basis alone that the small hole is drilled approximately in the flat plate which is then located on a spigot on the tool. The press comes down and off pops a newly pressed crosspiece. Ready to be hand finished or linished to suit. If something is being pressed, it's got to be properly and firmly located

Having rather uneventful yard sales and flea markets the past few weeks. Did pick up an unissued Yugo bayonet for my 24/47 for $30 today. Guns have become almost non-existent as the new interpretations of FFL laws are scaring guys off. Also spotted a Longbranch socket blade bayonet that I thought about picking up as I wasn't even aware Longbranch made them but I'm not really a manufacture collector, just a type. If it's rare enough, I'll get it next weekend.

The Long Branch socket bayonets are not rare and are fairly common but Canadian Arsenal made examples, their successor, are. I have 3 examples the first of which I searched for but the other 2 I came across by chance. They are identified by an "A" within a "C" and are rare because it is said only around 5000 were made.

I have a L1A1 bayonet in my hand which also has the small hole in the cross guard. I know a little bit about how press tools are made because I am an experienced press tool maker although nowadays I am more of a general metalworker. The small hole could well be a "tooling location" hole because normally you need 2 location holes for a part to run through a press tool. The second location hole would, most likely be, be the large muzzle ring hole although you can also use "external" location holes. This would mean running a wider strip through the tool to accommodate the punches outside of the cross guard punch. The normal practice for making a tool to punch out the cross guard such as this would have been to designed it so that a plain strip of steel is fed through the press tool and the finished item drops out from below. The blank then may require flattening and deburring to complete the process.