smith3006 don't be afraid to about senior members, just mean we have been on here longer not that we necessarily know more, or that we are more willing to post than others. I found your information interesting, I have Aussie blades with serials but only remember them with MD marks etc. and thought that like most countries serializing blades to rifles stopped with the war periods. This then of course means that there is th possibility of more than one blade with the same serial number as a lost blade would need replacing. My question then is how did they replace them if every rifle had its own blade? did they issue spares for such circumstances? if so where did they come from if the made exactly the same number of blades as rifles? I am not trying to be awkward but if you look at things like this you will see where Peter and I got our comments from. Logistically this would be a nightmare during wartime with equipment losses etc.