858 Bayonet Sharpening

[curtmg]

Possible? Practical?

I guess it'll jab into ribs just fine as it is, but unless a deer is bearing down on me, after unloading on it, I really don't think I'll have a whole lot of use for it that way. Perhaps if it were sharp, I might get some actual use out of it. My intended purpose for the rifle is deer hunting, and I figure you can never have enough good knives handy.

 

[Exoce†]

Being of the same mind I started sharpening mine. It's a long grind by hand from the blunt edge that's there. I never finished.

I should get back on that though, I was getting really close when I put it away last... a year ago.

 

[Goonsquad]

I've been working mine with a file and a stone but it takes a bit of time as the factory edge isn't true or uniform. After all of that is finished I'm unsure how good the steel is for holding a working edge. I'm basically doing it to see what it will come out like. Even in warfare the bayonet doesn't see a lot of use at the end of a rifle, more as a general knife and tool, and a dull knife might as well be a spoon...

 

[Exoce†]

Oh hey, while I'm in mind. Are you guys sharpening both sides of the tip or just the long side?

 

[beefman]

Mine sharpened-up pretty good with a big 20" file...only did the long side.

 

[PerversPépère]

The idea behind a blunt edge is that it cannot imbed itself into a bone and make it difficult to retrieve the blade at the moment you need it most. It is made to perforate, not cut.
Besides, sharpening a bayonet kills all its value for a collector. You choose.
Some make a good all-purpose knife such as the AK's and other modern designs but most of the old style pig-stickers don't take and keep a keen edge. Choice of steel I guess.
PP.

 

[curtmg]

The idea behind a blunt edge is that it cannot imbed itself into a bone and make it difficult to retrieve the blade at the moment you need it most. It is made to perforate, not cut.
Besides, sharpening a bayonet kills all its value for a collector. You choose.
Some make a good all-purpose knife such as the AK's and other modern designs but most of the old style pig-stickers don't take and keep a keen edge. Choice of steel I guess.
PP.

I'm thinking you're right, that it probably wouldn't take a very good edge anyway, and even if it did take it, the steel is probably to soft to hold it. But as for collector value, it's a new manufacture commercial firearm with a new manufacture bayo, that I intend to take into the woods hunting, and when I'm using at the range, I'll be putting corrosive ammo through it by the pound. So, I'm not particularly concerned with it having a poor rating on the antiques roadshow

 

[PerversPépère]

Eh-eh!
PP.

 

[Goonsquad]

The idea behind a blunt edge is that it cannot imbed itself into a bone and make it difficult to retrieve the blade at the moment you need it most. It is made to perforate, not cut.

I humbly offer that while the above sounds good it is nothing more than a wonderful bit of fancy with little real-world application.

While fixed bayonets are often unsharpened to prevent accidental user injury, it is true that they can only be used as a stabbing instrument. Typically we find unsharpend and/or fixed style bayonets in former Com-bloc countries I would suggest this is mainly for ease (volume) of manufactuer and lower cost.

A detachable knife type bayonet in any modern army is generally intended to fill various roles as a tool and field knife. I suspect that the CZ bayonet falls in the gray area between cheaper, high volume production, and the versitility of a knife type. Having handled my CZ bayonet, the tip is quite blunt from the factory and despite the force behind a thrusted bayonet, it would not be nearly as effective as even an basic SKS design.

Suggesting that an implement of war was designed intentionally blunt so that it didn't hang up on bone is complete fiction, were that the case a much simpler and cheaper designs could be fashioned from a pointed metal rod...

 

[rivetc78]

Is there an option for another type/style of bayonet? I received mine today...and foolishly tried to cut the bag containing my 858. It couldn't cut the plastic bag. LOL

 

[curtmg]

Is there an option for another type/style of bayonet? I received mine today...and foolishly tried to cut the bag containing my 858. It couldn't cut the plastic bag. LOL

Got any duct tape? My kitchen drawer is full of sharper bayonets

 

[Roughneck12]

I sharpened mine but like was said before its not even on both sides. It will never be a dagger but it is good for cutting open the bags that the ammo is in.