is there a trick to fitting a 1907 bayonet into a pattern 37 frog?

[henry r]

is there a trick to fitting a british 1907 bayonet into a pattern 37 frog?

i have managed to slide it up to just below the scabbard button but it is very very tight and i'm worried i might damage the scabbard trying to lever the top loop out to go over the button.

would soaking the frog loosen it enough to make it a little easier?
do i need to pre-stretch the frog?

thanks
henry.

Information

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[browningautorifle]

Don't soak it, you'll rust the scabbard mouth. Just turn the button to the back and work it down inside. Then turn the scabbard around for the button to pop into place. They can be a fight until they work in. That's how they are.

[Beerhunter]

Are you sure that you don't have the frog for a No.4 Mk.II bayonet. (Frog, web, bayonet, No. 4) That would be tight fit for a 1907.

[henry r]

i think it is a late production Australian one to suit a SLR (FN FAL) bayonet. it is kind of hard to tell as it has been painted white. it is coming off ok but it's a very slow process.

[Beerhunter]

Well it sounds like we are on the way to answer here. It's the wrong frog for the bayonet and it has been painted!

[henry r]

that might explain it. i had assumed that the slr and the 1907 scabbards' were the same diameter.


strange though, i just did a search and found a web site selling one type of frog as for SLR and smle, another for slr, no.5, no.7, and no.9, and a third frog for no.4 and no.5. now i'm even more confused.

[browningautorifle]

a late production Australian one to suit a SLR (FN FAL) bayonet

How then would it be a '37 pattern?

[Peter Laidler]

I often encountered various types of '37' bayonet scabbards until we finally all got the good '58 pattern stuff and wondered how come there were so many variables. You'd have thought that someone along the way would have said that there will be ONE single type of bayonet scabbard, standardised across the range. Some were wide, some too narrow for anything, some with support straps some with double this and that.......... Jeeeees!

Mind you, 37 pattern stuff was always a bit hit and miss as to size. How many have struggled to get a prismatic compass into and then out of of the little case. Or a pair of binos? Or get the brass ends of some straps through the brass buckles (think anklets here chaps.....). Best of all - or worst, was No2 binos in '44 pattern pouches. I mean......, what were they using as fit patterns? Another great little squeeze, the water-bottle holders. Some were so tight that you would tear the cloth outer lining off the water bottle. And we had to do all of this sxxx when the webbing was blancoed and the brass, brassoed!

[browningautorifle]

And hot water washing didn't help, drying it in the sun...

[henry r]

How then would it be a '37 pattern?

i have no idea what else to call it. the slr seems longer in the flat section in real life.

Australian SLR ------- early pat 37 for 1907 (pic from karkeeweb)