Featured An oddity, but a sharp one!

For those like Komokwa and myself who like sharp, pointy things, here is an oddity from my hoard...................

A US 1873 Springfield trowel bayonet. Not particularly rare, especially on the other side of the 'pond', but one of the strangest bayonets that I personally know of. This example has its wooden handle as well, which are quite scarce.

 

It's an odd thing all right, and I gave it a like... for it's oddity, not for it's function.

 

Obviously, you're not a gardener..................neither am I!

 

Or a brick mason

 

I've always liked the form of these strange 'trowel' bayonets.I've seen a number of them w/scabbard here on the West Coast.
Here's it's sibling- An original Indian Wars Model 1873 entrenching tool shovel.

 

That is neither a gardener's nor a mason's trowel, 'tho similar in form. It's a man-maiming battlefield tool, make no mistake.
An' I, for at least one, find it quite attractive!
That doesn't mean I favor its purpose...simply that I can acknowledge the direct simplicity of its design function an' execution.
It is possible to be in both of those places, y'know?

 

In the case of the trowel bayonet, the bottom left edge was sharpened on these, which would be the bottom edge when fitted to the rifle....................Only one reason for that !

Yes, they do turn up with the scabbards, but some scabbards are far rarer than the bayonets! Some 10.000 of these bayonets were produced, but only a couple of hundred of the other two patterns IIRC.

 

This is the most 'minty' entrenching tool i've ever seen-the dealer lists it as 'original'.Most unusual condition for a 19th century firearm/weapon.

 

The old saying, if it looks too good to be true.......... Without having it in hand I wouldn't really like to venture an opinion, but that handle just doesn't look 150 years old to me, no matter where it was stored ?

 

Well, the scabbard looks original.....maybe for a 'Re-enactment's Group' ????? But I for one can't speak to it, other than what I see...........

 

That's a nasty looking little critter........but I'll bet it could gut a horse !

 

I always wondered about the 3 sided bayonets that were outlawed because it tore up the guts so bad that medics could not close the wounds on the battlefield.

 

They were never outlawed, they just fell out of favour. Yataghan bayonets emerge in about the late 1830's and early 1840's, and then everybody wanted yataghans. Later, a knife or sword bayonet was recognised as being an advantage over a socket bayonet, which apart from holding a candle or holding down a tent, really only ever had one function.
They did produce a wound that was notoriously difficult to close, and which bled profusely too, but I very much doubt that the law and policy makers were ever troubled by this!
I have been on the wrong end of a socket bayonet, and can vouch for the bleeding a lot etc.!..................That's taking experimental archaeology too far though!

 

Blacksmith-That sounds like an intriguing tale.Only ever done it with old razors,pocket knives & X-Acto blades.

 

nearly took my thumb off with a pocket knife...just as I was throwing a big party...


and glass......dont forget glass........bin cut up more than once !!!!!

 

I was dealing in edged weapons many years back, and after packing up to go home, I picked up a bag and hadn't noticed that a socket bayonet was sticking out, and when I picked the bag up, result, one bayonet in the back of the leg! Blood everywhere, but my father who was with me at the time was an ambulance driver as was another stall holder there, and it luckilly got sorted without stitches.It bled like crazy though for a while.
Knives, glass, yeah, we've got the scars haven't we. I'll never make a criminal, I'm too easy to ID thanks to an accident with a modelling knife when I was a teen! Result, the only one of my bones that I have ever seen, and a still quite visible scar right down the centre of my right thumb!
I have been collecting edged weapons since I was six, nearly sixty years now, and mum and dad said that I could collect anything I wanted, BUT, the first time I cut myself, they would all go. The result of which was that I never played with my knives etc. Then, one day, some seventeen years later, I was at the market mentioned earlier, I cut myself on a Japanese wakizashi, then again on a Gurkha kukri, and finally stabbed myself with the socket bayonet. This was all on the same day! Might as well get the pain over and done with all at once eh! In the forty years since then, I have never once cut myself on an edged weapon! Perhaps, that day I simply should have stayed in bed! I hope it was a profitable day, but I cannot remember that bit.

 

After all your willing & humble sacrifices,Father Blade should gift you with the rarest & coveted edged blessings !

 

You'll put ina good word for me then??

 

The Father gives,and takes-the word has been passed.Keep your eye peeled for a Laghasian Khopesh.
The Deity queries-You have Amazon Prime ?

 

Thankyou, I'll keep my eyes and ears open!

Amazon Prime?.................er, is that animal , vegetable or mineral ? I have only just found out how candles work, and use a phonograph instead of a CD player! ......................technology is totally beyoned me I am afraid!