Sword Bayonet, 1856

[Gibbs505]

I recently brought this bayonet from a antique store.
It has an unusual hooked quillion

The only stamp I can make out is one that has an F

Another marking

If anyone can tell me more about this I would be grateful.
There is some writing on the spine of the blade, I will try to make it out.

 

[donor]

Sword bayonet for French M1866 Chassepot needle rifle.There is a lot of those around,I have seen pictures of those bayos converted for use on Gew 88.Unfortunately rifles are far less abundand.

 

[polaris]

Sword bayonet for French M1866 Chassepot needle rifle.There is a lot of those around,I have seen pictures of those bayos converted for use on Gew 88.Unfortunately rifles are far less abundand.

^^^^^^^^
This

They show up quite often at gun shows, saw 4 at the show today.

 

[Gibbs505]

Thanks'!

 

[grelmar]

Yup, Chassepot bayonet. I have one on the wall beside me. My uncle found it in a farmer's field ins Sask when he was visiting relatives there in the 50's.

Great story on how heaping piles of them ended up in Canada.

The Chassepot was the standard French rifle in the 1870/71 Franco/Prussian war. It was a better rifle than the Dreyse needle rifle, but the Prussian's had far, FAR better (and more numerous) artillery, so the French lost, and vast numbers of Chassepot were captured by the Prussians.

The Prussians were moving toward proper brass cartridges, so they had no need of warehouses full of Chassepot, so they disposed of them by the most convenient means - using the British arms merchants of the day to surplus them off. The British merchants promptly flogged them throughout the colonies to civvies (it was pretty useless as a military gun by this point), but the ability to hand roll paper cartridges from readily available materials had a lot of advantages in frontier regions. They were popular among the buffalo hunters on the prairies in the late 1800's - a good, hard-hitting rifle, with ammo that was easy to make at camp. The Metis had a lot of them during the North West Rebellion, and used them to good effect.

 

[sail32]

The Chassepot rifle;

http://www.virdea.net/french/74.html

The Germans converted the French 1866 Chassepot to fire the 1871 Mauser cartridge.

http://www.militaryrifles.com/unknown/chasspotgras/ChasspotGras.htm

Collector's Firearms; Chassepot bayonet $329.95

http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/french-model-1866-chassepot-german-conversion-bayonet-mew1500/

http://www.edgedweapons.nl/en/bayon...hassepot-m-1866-bayonet-abcn1811-k0-jn-detail

 

[green]

The M1866 Chassepot bt usually has the makers name and date engraved on the back of the blade in front of the crossguard.
The style of the M1866 was extensively copied notably by Remington.

 

[Gibbs505]

Best I could do for the engraving on the spine

Any help with the translation would be appreciated!

 

[green]

IMHO Manufacture Imperialle de Tulle and date illegible 1866