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Old 29th October 2008, 12:14 PM   #12
Royston
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Poole England
Posts: 441
Default Bayonet Blade

I agree with Chris Evans that the bayonet is probably from the 2nd half of the 19th century. It appears that bayonets with Yataghan blades were fashionable in many countries for several decades.

What I would like to know, is which bayonet. I started my collecting "career" with bayonets and had a very large collection. I still have a facination with them although I sold the collection many years ago. I retained all my books and have been looking through them to see if I can identify this blade. So far no luck. I am wondering if anyone else knows what it is.

Looking at the fuller, in particular the shape and the distance from the cross guard I don't think it can be any of the following:-
Austrian 1870, French 1842, French 1866, Portuguese 1885. The end of the fuller looks too square on these.
Possibly the Danish 1867, Turkish 1874 or British 1856 although I don't see how the first 2 would have ended up in South America. The Enfield 1856 may be more of a possiblity as there were a lot of them and they did travel.
Is there an american bayonet that fits? I never collected the older bayonets from the USA as they were not readily available in the UK.

I cannot recall any of the S.American countries using yataghan bayonets butno doubt someone will prove me wrong

Regards
Royston
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