1876 Wincherter saber bayonets

[Major 2]

I brought home a pair of these for conservation.
(Not mine)

I will remove surface rust and free up the spring catches
and remove some paint of the grip of one of the...

[Drydock]

Not something You see often!   

[Major 2]

let alone two, here they are in Solution to remove surface rust

[Coffinmaker]

Oh way COOL!!

Especially interesting in light of the military finally realizing the human body is only about Ten Inches thick.  I don't actually know when the Army changed to the "shorter" Bayonet but the modern iteration is also much easier to lug around and mount 

[Major 2]

Rust neutralized

[Drydock]

Really a holdover from the days of early rifle troops being expected to use the bayonet as a short sword.  A tactic well used by the British Rifles of the Napoleonic era.  Indeed, the Rifles call to fix bayonets was actually "Fix Swords!"  Those US troops issued the M1841 "Mississippi" rifle during the Mexican war operated in the same fashion.

[Major 2]

I stopped short of polishing, leaving earned patina.


   

[Hair Trigger Jim]

As probably all of you know, the sword bayonet also reflects the fact that military rifles were often shorter than infantry muskets, and were issued longer bayonets so they'd be competitive during a bayonet charge.  A quick internet search (as I don't have any originals on hand) indicates the Baker rifle was almost 10 inches shorter than the contemporary India pattern Brown Bess, and a Mississippi rifle was shorter than an 1842 musket (or its predecessors in the 1816 series) by the same amount.

[Major 2]

A classic example of this was British Lee-Medford (which replaced the Martini Henry)
A new bladed bayonet was issued with the Lee-Medford.
When The British and Commonwealths adopted the SMLE and
its then accompanying Lee- Medford bayonet was at a disadvantage on OAL to Mausers, Lebel, Arisaka and Mosin Nagant of the same era.
In 1907 the British used the Japanese Arisaka bayonet as the pattern
for their own SMLE 1907 pattern bayonet which was longer.

[Drydock]

Indeed, when the US replaced the Krag infantry rifle with the shorter 1903, a longer bayonet was issued with it to compensate. Ironically the shorter Krag bayonet would come to be preferred in the trenchs of WW1.

[Major 2]

Indeed, when the US replaced the Krag infantry rifle with the shorter 1903, a longer bayonet was issued with it to compensate. Ironically the shorter Krag bayonet would come to be preferred in the trench's of WW1.

Yep, that was the Model of 1905 bayonet, then it went into WW2 and was cut down for the Garand.