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Originally Posted by fearn
I've seen similar knives offered in the replica catalogs as Union side arms for the American Civil War. They were supposedly the north's answer to the southern bowie, and were carried by riflemen.
That said, I'm pretty sure this isn't a Civil War piece. However, I'm comfortable that it's not a bayonet.
F
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my first impression was also argentina.
fearn, you may be thinking of the ames rifleman's knife made in small numbers (less than a thousand) for an army rifleman regiment dispatched to the mexican war, unfortunately for them, the knives were not ready when they left so were not issued. some drifted into private hands and some were issued for the civil war. i've heard the traditional story of someone finding one at a flea market (garage/car boot sale here) for a few dollars a few decades ago. it's one of the holy grails of knife collectors.
replicas abound. mine:
(fairly good replica, they mis-spelled 'cabotville' as 'cabotsville' tho, and used wrong font for one stamp)