Bayonet Bonanza

[Sentryduty]

A way round this problem, in the 1940s, would have been to punch out just the outer profile of the cross guard and then to drill/bore the muzzle ring hole plus machine the blade slot. To do this it would not be necessary to have any holes actually in the cross guard in order to locate on a machining jig because it is perfectly normal/acceptable to locate on the outside of the blank using pins. Today a part like the cross guard would most likely be cut out on a C.N.C. laser cutting machine and would produce a nice flat part.

We KNOW that they're punched out because we can see the shear marks on the sides, inside the blade hole and around the interior of the large diameter hole!

In the eye of mass production this is the only way to do it, one strike of an automated machine, like a cookie cutter. While making a nice flat piece by punching, then drilling, and machining just adds two extra and expensive steps to a piece that guys like me are just going to literally bash against things. A little bend, a little wobble is of no matter to us troops in the field, does it poke holes in bad guys, stay on the end of the rifle, and not snap when windlassing barbed wire is pretty much all we care about.

Best to build them fast and cheap, because we are going to break them regardless how nice they are finished.