Resharpening Milsurp Bayonet?

Drachenblut

Drachenblut

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Hello,

I am the proud owner of an 1896 dated matching Pattern 1888 Mk. II bayonet and matching scabbard. The bayonet has no edge anymore (to the point of being a club, not a knife-like device). I wanted to resharpen it professionally as it has a dual-sided, double cutting hollow edge per side.

Will this damage it's value? If so, why? Would not a functional piece of history be better?

I personally wish to carry it as a back-up knife into the High North (timber forests of Canada)

I know this is an odd question coming from a milsurp collector like myself, but as they say, no question is a stupid question, only stupidity lays in lack of knowledge when attainable. :)

Thanks,
Drachenblut
 
The bayonet is a thrusting device and, as such, should only have a point. Putting an edge on it is contrary to its purpose, and would likely make for a questionable field tool, not to mention a bit of sacrilege for a milsurp item.

Perhaps you could examine other options for a reliable field knife, and leave the bayonet as is for its historical value.
 
This is what I was thinking in the first place. Still, I have met many bayonets with sharp edges, however a dull edge, historically, causes much more crude wounds. Thank you for your advice
 
UncleMax said:
The bayonet is a thrusting device and, as such, should only have a point. Putting an edge on it is contrary to its purpose, and would likely make for a questionable field tool, not to mention a bit of sacrilege for a milsurp item.

Perhaps you could examine other options for a reliable field knife, and leave the bayonet as is for its historical value.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly
 
I'll have to double check some of mine when I get home, but I'm pretty sure the Pattern 1888 was issued without any sharp edge. Actually, if you look close at the edge of the blade, I seem to recall they are flat for a fair distance up to the tip.

I agree with the previous posters that you would be far better served by picking up an actual hunting knife/utility knife/machete for your excursions. Plus, as I'm sure you know by now, doing something like you have proposed will earn you several :kickInTheNuts: here.
 
:agree:x4 Bayonets aren't knives and as such weren't sharpened. They do however make for a formidable thrusting evisceration machine when coupled to they're rifle counterpart as intended. I've heard tell that a sharpened bayonet could get stuck if in a chest cavity {never having tried this myself I can't speak from experience} but it makes sense that a sharpened blade would/could cut into the rib when thrust. Instead of "pushing" the bone aside it would cut causing removal to be troublesome. Leave it as is . My .02:p
 
A bayonet is designed as a crushing and piercing instrument. If it crushes its way in, it will be easy to withdraw; if it cuts and slices its way in, especially through a rib, the collapse of the thrustee well could jam the thing in there..... making you a Target for the thrustee's buddy.

Ceremonially, many British regiments, on being posted to a combat zone, would have the Armourer sharpen all swords and bayonets available, but that was back in the day of the triangular, tapered bayonet. This tradition was still in vogue as late as the Great War. But the situation with a blade-type bayonet is entirely different in a combat zone, and I rather think that any ceremonial sharpening would be just that: ceremonial.
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I'd bring one of these bad boys.

knife002.jpg
 
Sharpened bayonets are against the Geneva Convention, so buy altering it from original as issued condition you ruin its collector value.
 
If you get your "sharp" bayonet stuck in someone, just pull the trigger and shoot it out. either that, or plant your foot on the enemy's chest for a bit more leverage.

Personaly I think thats an urban myth just like the "blood groove"
 
It would be a hell of a lot easier to stab and remove a sharpened blade but I think the German sawback bayonet from WW1 was deemed inhumane and not easily removeable...............bayonets aren't left in ,as you still need the gun and they kill by hemorrhaging...........JMO.....Harold
 
I found this:

Articles on the 1949 Geneva Convention and the 1907 Hague Convention.

U.S. Army Field Manual ~FM 27-10 Paragraph 34 states...It is especially forbidden * * * to employ arms, projectiles, or material calculated to cause unnecessary suffering. (HR, art. 23, par..) Bayonets are held to a higher standard in the Geneva than a knife because of the multiple purposes a knife can serve and where a bayonet has really only one purpose... The factory edge is the standard!
 
Just finished my Military Law OPME DCE 002 and we discussed many such myths. It started as a memo in the first world war stating "surface of the bayonet shall be dulled". It was refering to the damned high polished finish on the Wilkinson provided 07 pattern bayonets. Has been exaggerated ever since. It is in none of the Hague or Geneva conventions. There are many such Geneva convention myths.
 
Keep in mind people confuse the Hague and Geneva conventions as well, since the Hague dealt moreso with the weapons aspects of warfare.

I would say, don't sharpen it. I've never seen a real bayonet that had a cutting edge unless some fudd did it later in its life.
 
lefty said:
Just finished my Military Law OPME DCE 002 and we discussed many such myths. It started as a memo in the first world war stating "surface of the bayonet shall be dulled". It was refering to the damned high polished finish on the Wilkinson provided 07 pattern bayonets. Has been exaggerated ever since. It is in none of the Hague or Geneva conventions. There are many such Geneva convention myths.
Click to expand...

Thank you...

There are so many myths about it, it drives me nuts. The Army is the worst place for these rumours, the one that drove me into rants was the myth that we can't use .50 cal against dismounted infantry. That one seems to have died out since our time in Afghan, and the effectiveness of 25mm HE shown on dismounted Taliban. :D

As for the bayonet, I have read more than a few re-printed letters from WWI soldiers (and more than a few books) stating that sharpened bayonets are more likely to get caught on a rib, making extraction difficult. Yeah, you could always use your foot to pry it out, but there was always a good chance of catching another bayonet in the process.
 
"...Sharpened bayonets are against the Geneva Convention..." Nonsense.
Don't sharpen it or use it as a back-up knife. It's an accessory to your rifle. Think in terms of what it cost you and how long it took to find it.
 
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