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Originally Posted by fernando
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Fernando, I wanted to share with you how I came upon this notion that Albacete daggers, at least the type I have referred to which 'look' like plug bayonets, indeed had a certain association.
Probably one of the foremost authorities on bayonets was my friend, the late Roger Evans, who wrote "The Plug Bayonet" in 2002. This man was literally obsessed with this weapon form, and I was familiar with his countless column in "The Armourer" magazine titled "Cold Steel" for years before we began communicating.
In his book (op. cit p.141), he describes how the Spaniard, in their affinity for maintaining tradition often held to their old form miguelet lock smooth bore guns well into the 19th century. This might offer some idea of the reason the plug bayonet maintained its familiar hilt form even long after this weapon had become effectively obsolete.
He notes further (p.141) that "..it is worth noting that the cognomen 'Plug bayonet' , in Spanish 'bayoneta de taco' is a neologism coined by modern Spanish collectors. Traditionally the weapon has been described there only by the more general terms cuchillo de caza or cuchullo de monte (i.e. hunting or mountain knife). "
It seems the 'name game' has virtually no bounds, nor the application of 'weapons lore'.
Regarding the mysterious aperture in the Albacete daggers (p.158-168, in the chapter titled "The Plug Bayonets of Albacete"), which is not an exclusive feature by any means in ALL of them, apparently certainly the 19th century forms with Bowie type blades.
"...at an earlier period, however other blade forms were also favored like that of the knife shown on p.158 with its distinctive punched dot decoration combined with circular holes or slots drilled through the blade thickness into which thin strips of brass were often inserted. These rather strange blade features were purely a traditional form of ornament, although it has been said that they were reservoirs into which poison was smeared with the object of making a wound more deadly. This is probably no more than an example of the kind of romanticized legend that often grows around traditional weaponry. An alternative theory is that the blade apertures with their reed brass like inserts were hunters whistles. Producing any kind of sound by blowing vigorously through these slots seems however to be impossible".
Naturally these IMO, romanticized ideas are on their face, nonsense, just as so many of these in weapons lore, but I wanted to share them here as a matter of reference. It would seem that often features held traditionally on many weapons forms have become vestigial representations of some earlier element, but more often might simply be a distinct ornamentation device.
I probably should have consulted this reference before asking the question, but did not have it at hand at the time. If I can find the reference you have suggested it will be interesting to see its perspective.