African swords as tools?

[Bill M]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

In combat, "anything goes"! and when one is working and a certain tool needed is not available...same rule! I cant say how many times I've seen old bayonets used to dig up weeds.

All best regards,
Jim

Jim,

I was at an antique market last weekend and a seller had an actual bayonet shaped like a small, sharpened shovel. About 7" long and maybe 4" wide.

American Civil War. It fit the 45-70 rifle. It even had a scabbard with "US" on it.

He said that it was very rare because even though a number of them were made the troops disliked the idea of trying to bayonet an enemy with a small shovel on the end of a rifle, that they threw them away!

It was $1200 if anyone wants me to put them in touch with the seller. he had a lot of quality items and the shovel bayonet looked well made.

I have done a Google search and found that they are indeed rare. In fact in the immortal words of the "Highlander,"

"There can be only one!"

[Nonoy Tan]

I totally agree with Jim. Some peoples have even taken a further step by modifying the weapon design to suit another purpose. Here is an example of a spear from Northern Luzon of the Philippines (i.e. Cordillera area) which has been made to be a walking cane as well (or vice-versa).

The other photo shows a digging stick (for harvesting root crops) which can easily be used as a dagger too. Also from Northern Luzon, Philippines.

[Jim McDougall]

That is really something Bill, it seemed I had heard of something like that but cant remember where. It seems there have been so many outlandish creations in the realm of military weaponry intended to be multipurpose, and this one really gets a gold star!
Nonoy Tan thank you for sharing the interesting items from the Philippines!
The cane/spear combination reminds me of the interesting concealed weapons carried by mendicants in India.

This really is an intriguing topic and I'm glad you brought it up Bill !!

The item that comes to mind for me, speaking of bayonets is the saw tooth back Schmitt-Rubin sword bayonet used by German infantry in WWI. These were of course to serve also as saws for materials in entrenchments and other field utility use, however the allies saw these as terrible inhumane weapons intended to produce horrifying wounds. With this tale perpetuated, the troops fiercely reacted to any German soldiers with one of these gruesome looking bayonets and often shot them without chance to surrender. The truth was of course that as a weapon, the sawback was entirely counterproductive and impaired penetration or if it did penetrate, could not be withdrawn, leaving its user effectively disarmed.

There are of course many combination weapons that are hybrids of firearms and edged weapons.....but with weapon and tool...now thats esoterica!
Hope we'll see some more examples.

Good note on the Highlander Bill!!! One of my favorites!!

All very best regards,
Jim