Foreign Legion Fighting Knife

I'm hurting and on pain meds so maybe I screwed up but I don't think so.

This morning I purchased a proclaimed French Foreign Legion fighting knife on ebay. It's a cut down 1917 Remington bayonet with a sabre point in a shortened leather scabbard which was attached to a French style leather belt attachment.

The story is these were cut down in the 1950's from the thousands of bayonets the French had on hand from WWII. There are supposed to be two variations, the sabre point and the spear point. Detractors say that the Foreign Legion had the same equipment as the French Army so these would not have been used. This is however contradicted by actual photos of Legion troopers carrying them.

http://northridgeinc.com/productImag...75w__large.jpg

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/uplo...1386220044.jpg

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/uplo...1385247644.jpg

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/uplo...1385180060.jpg

Second photo shows one with the cut down 1917 and the other with a US M3 I believe.

I bought mine 30 years ago at an airshow at Mildenhall, the guy had a basket full of them. in near mint condition

I bought one from a European dealer at the War & Peace Show around 10-15 years ago. He had a quantity and they were unissued. I delved through them and picked a rarer Winchester P13 marked example.

I don't have the actual photo of the one I purchased, says they have several and will ship similar. Kind of hoping it isn't unissued. Just be cool to have something used by the French Foreign Legion.

Hey Aragorn hope you get better soon the pain meds can make things look a bit out there know exactly where your at with that lot from experience not good at all.

I've had a miserable week health wise. Three day weekend, I get sick with a bad head cold Saturday afternoon. So I figure I'll rest in bed. Sunday, go to church, miserable, go home, go to bed. Monday, miserable but go to charity auction, buy nothing, first time in six years. Miserable, go home, go to bed. Tuesday, home sick in bed. Wednesday, finally feeling better but back now hurting from being in bed so much. Go to work, be stupid, kill my back replacing shingles. Go home, can hardly move. Thursday, in bed again, severe back pain, do get up to move around and sit in chair some. Friday, feeling a little better so go to work doing light stuff, re-caulking a shower door. Takes about an hour and a half, that's enough, go home, sit, relax, go to football game. Back slowly recovering. Takes me about 4-5 days, then can go back to normal with some limitations. My pain meds is Tylenol so doesn't make me loopy too much if at all, just the pain. I've had Vicodin for this and it never worked for me. Only thing that ever helped was muscle relaxers but I don't have those this time.

So I sit on the computer, scan ebay, buy things I probably shouldn't because I'm bored out of my mind, depressed, in pain, and the momentary thrill of winning an auction feels pretty good. I got a Spanish Mauser short bayonet in addition to the knife.

A thing to help a bit with back pain if by chance they have a heated pool near you grab a noodle (long thin flotation thingy) place under arms and float about vertically in the water without your feet touching the bottom. This stretches the spine tacking the pressure off the nerves do this until you feel comfortable repeat as required. The only draw back is for the first while with my situation was as soon as I put weight back on getting out of the pool it was like someone had got a red hot Sabre and rammed it up my spine. But trust me keep doing it and it gets better. Bruforen is good for muscle swelling as well. You have my sympathies bloke.

Red hot saber, yep, pretty familiar with how those feel. I have to be careful with what I take because I already take an aspirin every day. I'd probably be OK if I did my daily stretches but I only do them when it hurts.

Carefull with the aspirin a day, they say that can burn a hole in the stomach lining after a while unless you take it with food or milk, Ray

This thread has now gone completely off topic. I take the aspirin at dinner time.

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Originally Posted by Aragorn243

I take the aspirin at dinner time.

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And sit and study your fighting knife...wondering who had it. You say it's in transit? You'll show us when it arrives?

Not in transit yet but I will post photos when it arrives.

Northridge International is selling them on their website but at a much higher price than I paid.

Northridge International Inc. / FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION COMBAT KNIFE P17 BAYONET CUT DOWN.

I got excited and 'ran' to Ebay to check on them. Unfortunately the only one I found was Made in China. Looks a lot like the original, but not quite 100%. Might have to get one from Northridge.

They may list another on ebay for less. Might not be in until Monday, might be worth waiting.

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Originally Posted by Aragorn243

They may list another on ebay for less. Might not be in until Monday, might be worth waiting.

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I agree. It's usually worth waiting. Sooner or later things show up.

They listed a second, $89.99. They also have an M1 carbine bayonet from the Legion. Rubber handle, leather retaining strap. Look to be in pretty rough shape. They must have bought a bunch of legion stuff as they list a shovel, etc.

OK, it came today. Mixed feelings about it. It is unissued. So part of me is disappointed it wasn't in some Indonesian battle but part of me is happy that it's in such good condition. It looks like they parkerized it after the cutting. This one has the sabre point. Markings are excellent, Remington 5 16 1913, British acceptance marks on the other side. Grips are dry, they are oversized. I'll have to compare it to my other 1917's but just looking at it here without comparing, I'm going to assume they are a replacement. Screws parkerized also. Release button apparently still functional but so tight, I'm not going to mess with it right now.

Scabbard has been painted, some scrapes on it. Upper metal marked GF, metal tip appears to have a small triangle stamped near the drainage hole. Leather appears to have an italicized "O". Leather hanger appears unmarked.

I will get some photos up when I get a chance. It's very nicely done.

Looking forward to some close pics...

Here it is. The blade is unsharpened with the exception of the tip. That is sharp.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...sw7lzcfq-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...pksk618k-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...ly0pjdww-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...mpsluyfd-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...fdeba6vb-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...wgavaw95-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...2mtdwsnz-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...torrqpjj-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...v68gspmf-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...szzpmjjc-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...e1yzyfm5-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...nrmd1bp8-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...pzoy7ubj-1.jpg

Very nice blade bit of RLO/Min Turp on the grips and it will come up a treat

It makes sense that it was refinished after a major overhaul like it had. You call that a saber tip, I'd have called it a Bowie point... Nice looking blade, wish they'd issued me something like that when I started out.

I would call it a bowie tip also but was trying to be consistent with what the various descriptions I read called it. They said sabre and spear were the two types of tips.

French Foreign Legion fighting knife. 20+ years ago, IMA had a large number of these for sale. All looked exactly like this one, they were in new, condition and I almost bought one (or two or....), they were not terribly expensive.