Pattern 1888 Bayonet Made Into A "Fighting Knife"

[1srelluc]

Sort of a shame. :/

I found this Pattern 1888 bayonet (Wilkinson, London) someone converted into a "fighting knife" yesterday at a yard sale for $2.00.

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[browningautorifle]

Sort of a shame

Well yes, but they did that after these went out of active service. Just like the M1 bayonets and the P14/M1917, P1907 blades... It's been done all along. I'm sure you've seen these.

They sure discolored the edge though, whomever did it. Got it really hot...

[rcathey]

Just like the M1 bayonets and the P14/M1917, P1907 blades...

I’ve seen quite a few Krag bayonets done this way. And they bring decent money! 60, 75 bucks or so depending on the hack job.

[browningautorifle]

There were Ross bayonets turned into hunting knives after the war and they are hailed as "Rare trench knives"...but are just a conversion done when hunting knives were scarce. M1905 bayonets/M1 rifle bayonets were also done after the war using incomplete bayonets and came out in various looks including chromed/polished in the white bayonets. Very interesting stuff all of this and a whole collection to base on.

[Aragorn243]

I believe in the case of the Ross bayonets, they were done by the US military. Not positive on that but it's the impression I have. That makes a bit of a difference in collecting.

[browningautorifle]

the Ross bayonets, they were done by the US military.

Here's the easiest way to explain, no not a US military conversion... This conversion is described in "The Ross Rifle Story" by Phillips, Chadwick and Dupuis in Chapter 8. In 1944 Montreal businessman William Margolin purchased 2,207 surplus Ross bayonets and 1,963 scabbards. He shipped them to PAL Tool and Blade of Holyoak, Massachusetts for altering into hunting knives. I have discovered that PAL Tool and Blade apparently had a factory in Plattsburgh N.Y. and I suspect this is where the work was actually done. In
R.B. Manarey's pamphlet "The Canadian Bayonet" 1970, we find a photo and reference to these knives mentioning that they were civilian conversions to hunting knives sold through United Cigar Stores at the end of the war for $7.50

We also find a reference to these knives in M.H.Cole "A Collection of Military Knives" (book 4 I think) which if I recall gives an incorrect number of examples produced. We find it again in F.J.Stephens "Fighting Knives' 1980 on p.26 where he postulates it is an "official conversion."

Another early reference is in the article "The Ross Bayonet and Scabbard" by F. Dupuis in Canadian Journal of Arms Collecting Vol 9 No. 2 May 1971.
This article was later revised and became Chapter 8 in the Ross Rifle Story.
In this original article Dupuis postulates that his brown scabbard knife with a struck off service mark was a military conversion while his black scabbard knife without the mark was civilian. At the time this was a logical conclusion but incorrect. So we can see how authors have stoked the controversy over the origins of this conversion.

[Flying10uk]

It seems like some dealers try to use the "fighting knife conversion" narrative in order to sell a bayonet with a broken muzzle ring or an incomplete bayonet.

[browningautorifle]

some dealers try to use the "fighting knife conversion"

Exactly...and it's been known for ages that they try this sales ploy.