No5's......., anyone got

[Peter Laidler]

Anyone got a scabbard stripped down in front of them, can tell me the wall thickness of the scabbard. Am about to convert a standard scabbard to long RFI L1A1 length by adding/tig welding an oval extension. Unless anyone had an old battered scabbard that can be cut-and-shut as they say in the world of car ringing!

Information

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[Havenot]

Hmmm....approx .90mm/.035" this being probably an Australian scabbard and measured with a 'Blue-Point' digital caliper. Scabbard is painted but not that thick....takes about a minute to remove the screw and gently work the throat and spring out. I need to clean the thing anyhow. It's nasty as can be inside!

This a standard steel/brass throated No.5/L1A1 scabbard

[Peter Laidler]

Thanks. I have stripped and thrown out about a million i my service life but never had to extend one. Hence the request for info. If anyon's interested, the mouthpiece screw is 6BA countersunk machine head screw, cut to length

[mrclark303]

Sounds like an interesting project Peter, any chance of a few pics?

[Flying10uk]

I measured, with a micrometer, a genuine British issue No5 scabbard and found it to be .036"/20SWG thickness, so the same as Havenot's.

I did try Peter's conversion a couple of years ago and while the idea did work, I only have access to a mig welder which isn't the best welder for this job. The main problems were distortion caused by the heat of the weld and avoiding "blow through" while maintaining a good weld.

Another possibility that I have thought about is the possibility of converting an existing long steel scabbard by shortening it, if necessary, rather than adding on, to produce a scabbard suitable for for the long Indian SLR bayonet. I was lucky in obtaining a genuine long Indian scabbard for my Indian SLR bayonet pictured here. One possibility that I thought may be a contender, but there may be others, is the long Swiss steel scabbard. The one pictured here I tweeted slightly in order that it would fit a Finnish Mosin Nagant bayonet that had no scabbard. The Swiss scabbard does taper slightly on the sides, it would need shortening and, obviously, would need a frog button added and, obviously, I can't confirm how suitable it would be for conversion.