Odd Lee Enfield bayonet

[browningautorifle]

Looks like a #5 bayonet but with a 1907 muzzle ring. Here's what the owner states...

"The original blade was shortened from 435mm to 230mm and the tip was ground into a bowie shape, modelled on the British No. 5 bayonets.
Scabbard: This is a standard 1907 scabbard with the leather section reduced.
NOTES:
The bayonets shortened in this way are said to have been used by the South African police.
Total length 352mm
Possibly of South African or Indian origin."

I wonder if it was done up like the #8 bayonet by the Indian arsenals? It ain't a 1907 bayonet of any kind, the blade wasn't shortened...pics...

[Low & Slow]

Looks like an Indian A1 long bayonet for the FAL. IMA had one listed at one point. Had a steel scabbard though.

[BradJ]

The scabbard shown above looks a lot like an Australian Owen SMG bayonet scabbard. They were basically a shortened 1907 scabbard.

[browningautorifle]

Looks like an Indian A1 long bayonet for the FAL

I'd buy that suggestion, the scabbard could have been pilfered from the bayonets that were made shorter or cut. We had tons come into Canada back in end '70s . This bayonet is located in Quebec and that's where the importer was.

The scabbard shown above looks a lot like an Australian Owen SMG bayonet scabbard

I had one of those too. Blade length is close, maybe...could be. But the bayonet could well be for the Ishy FN. The owner obviously never applied the blade to a rifle.

[Sapper740]

Jim, Al Wilson of Langley Guns and Tackle sold a bunch of 1A1's when they were flooding into Canada back in the day. I picked one for $169 complete with bayonet. It was the spitting image of the bayonet in your post except with a steel scabbard.

[browningautorifle]

Langley Guns and Tackle sold a bunch of 1A1's

I had one here. Chose the best one and rebuilt it, that's how I found out about the differences between the inch pattern and the Indian pattern. Never saw the bayonets... Thanks for that info.

[Daan Kemp]

RFI 65 indicates Ishapore and 1965.

[Peter Laidler]

I have /had one of these, complete with wooden grips and the Indian Army Liaison Officer at Warminster said that it was an Indian made L1A1 rifle bayonet with an extended length blade. They had longer blades to deal effectively with the thickly padded smock jackets Chinese Infantry based very close to the Northern Border in India.

That one shown even has the recessed catch - as per the EMER to make A1 and A2 bayonets into A3 and A4 variants

I didn't have a scabbard for mine and miraculously, one arrived for me a month or so later. With the compliments of the Indian Army.

I understand that the long scabbards are now available in the UK

[browningautorifle]

the Indian Army Liaison Officer at Warminster said that it was an Indian made L1A1 rifle bayonet with an extended length blade. They had longer blades to deal effectively with the thickly padded smock jackets Chinese Infantry based very close to the Northern Border in India.

Excellent info, I was hoping you'd be along. The owner has been alerted and said he'd follow this thread. Thanks for the testimony...

[Peter Laidler]

Another point to note BAR is that the wood grips are the standard No5 grips. You can always tell these because of the short space between the grip screw holes. Whereas the L1Ax bayonets, the grip retaining rivets are spaced well apart. The Indians always kept to the 'squared' grinder to cut the fuller in their No5's and L1A1's

Someone did say that the Indians also produced an extended length No5/Sterling L2A3 bayonet. Never seen one. Have you seen one Arragorn......?

I remember about the screws/rivets because I was 'asked' (when the RSM sends for you and 'asks', that means you are being told to...) to fit wooden grips to the quarter-guard rifle highly polished bayonets for a high ranking politicians visit to the Battalion. i did ask for the Brits (we called them Poms in those non-woke days...) in Singapore to send me a dozen sets of No5 wood grips but they didn't fit because the holes were differently spaced and the tangs were too hard to drill using the machinery in our old Bedford QL machinery truck. So we hand made them.