No1 rifles today......

[Flying10uk]

I have straightened up several bayonets and blades if it's been only a small distortion, cold, by carefully gripping one side of the bend between the SOFT jaws of a vice and carefully tapping the other side of the bend with a soft mallet. This method has worked for me on a number of occasions but it is always a gamble because if you over do it you could snap the blade into 2 pieces. My theory is that a bayonet blade is likely to be fairly well tempered during the heat treatment process of it's manufacture, otherwise it could be prone to breakage in use. If the blade in question is fairly well tempered, on a par with a vehicle leaf spring, for example, then it should withstand a certain amount of straightening without the need to soften it first.

The above is not a recommendation to others on how to attempt to straighten a slightly distorted blade, it is just how I do it. I always wear safety goggles when doing this and while others may well ridicule me for doing so, there is always the potential for the blade to break sending fragments in any direction.

[browningautorifle]

a bayonet similar to the ones shown. Some idiot has bent it slightly

If you would show us a clear pic of the bend we can help more. Otherwise we're guessing...

[5thBatt]

Dont think its the same as those in the pics but there is this '07 that has a Bowie type blade.



& yes it does fit a SMLE

[Bindi2]

Dont think its the same as those in the pics but there is this '07 that has a Bowie type blade.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...raelirhs-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...raeliihs-1.jpg

& yes it does fit a SMLE
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...ttatched-1.jpg

Some more info on that bowie would be nice 5th.

[5thBatt]

Some more info on that bowie would be nice 5th.

All i know about them is they are called a Israeli No6 & while the blade is near the same as a No5 it is a few mm longer
UK Bayonets By year (non Socket)

[Bruce_in_Oz]

5th. Batt:

Is it just my jaundiced old eyes, or does the quillon on that bayonet of yours look like its was shaped with a gas-axe?

[Peter Laidler]

There were some of these shorties (thread 23) doing the rounds in the UK a few years ago. I think made from the short Indian No1 bayonets without the groove in the blade. Easy to tell...., like this one.

Maybe a better method of straightening a bent blade (see thread 21) is to put the blade on a suitably clamped vice and put a piece of pipe over the bent part of the blade and GENTLY straighten by levering pipe. There's more control this way to because by definition, a bend takes place over a length and you can clamp, bend, clamp, bend to suit. FAR better to treat tempered steel like this than whacking it I say

[browningautorifle]

the quillon on that bayonet of yours look like its was shaped with a gas-axe

Looks crudely stamped.

GENTLY straighten by levering

That's how I'd do it too, a good solid hold in a vise and gently bend back to shape. Bayonets will take a surprising bend before snapping, if they do.

[Flying10uk]

FAR better to treat tempered steel like this than whacking it I say

I didn't suggest, in any way, whacking it, Peter. I stated in Post 23, that the way I straighten slightly distorted blades is to carefully tap with a soft mallet. There is a difference between whacking and tapping.

I also stated that my method was not a recommendation to others to do the same, only a description of my method. Having worked with metal as part of my day job for years I have some idea of how much straightening, in the cold, I can get away with before I risk a fracture of the blade. I have successfully straightened a number of slightly distorted blades using the method I have described and without incident. There is an ever present risk with this that the blade will break because it is heat treated steel. If it ever happens to me I will put it down to experience and regard it as my own silly fault.

Using this method of tapping the blade with a mallet also allows me to hold the end of the blade during the tapping process. If necessary some assistance can be given with the free hand to the straightening process as well as getting a "feel" for the metal. What is required is not brute force and ignorance but just the right amount of force, applied in exactly the right place. No two distorted blades are going to be the same and there is going to be no hard and fast rule in straightening them. It's all about getting a "feel" for the metal which only comes from experience.

[Peter Laidler]

Hey......... settle down F-10! Nobody's saying that any method is any more right than another - or more wrong than another for heavens sake! So far as any difference between whacking and tapping..... once again it's just a matter or words. Although to be fair and as someone who has tapped and whacked a few bayonets in his life, I'm not too sure that a careful tap on a length of tempered steel is any more or less efffective as a good whack. But the spec of the blades is that they will bend - and presumably bend back too. After all, that's what we used to have a 'bend box test' for. Hence the X mark on the blade. It's a factory metallurgical equivalent of a factory proof round(s)

Chill a bit!