Well, it arrived a few minutes ago. It's solid, nothing missing, a bit of red rust, a few small pits. 4 inch grip, 7.25 in. blade, fairly sharp, scrubbed off the red rust & oiled it. Will look for a scabbard to store it in, hopefully like the ones shown above.
I've read somewhere that the early plug bayonets were just daggers with cylindrical non-tapered grips sized to fit your musket's bore, so they would fit nicely without wobbling like the tapered grip ones we call 'plug bayonets'.
Last night I saw a firearms video where a man fired a musket, then drew and inserted his plug bayonet to counter a charge from 15 yards by an opponent. or at least tried, the opponent reached him before he could get it in the muzzle. The socket bayonet was developed fairly quickly after to enable firing with the bayonet attached. They also did a VR simulation of a WW1 trench where the real human was confronted by a charging German with just a rifle and then with one with his bayonet attached. They measured stress and fright levels. seems, like the Brits always believed, the bayonet charge scared more and broke the enemy more than just firing muskets.
I've read about a Sultan from one of the independent states in SEA that had a few hundred armed rebels attacking his capital. He called out his Gurkha bodyguard with their rifles. The rebels kept attacking. The Gurkhas were ordered to draw Khukuris, as they closed, the rebels reconsidered and ran away. End of rebellion. People will charge gun, but fear edged weapons, even tho you are more likel;y to survive a bayonet (or khukuri) than a bullet.
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