A belated Happy New year to everyone.
Just a quick reminder to all of you that the Society of American Bayonet Collectors (SABC) will be holding their annual meeting on Saturday, March 18 at the Baltimore-North Holiday Inn. There’s still time to join the organization and register for the meeting. Email me if you’d like more information.
Update
We’ll continue with the topic we started a few months ago; foreign made bayonets for the US M16 rifle.
Eickhorn KCB70 M1
1970, the German firm of Carl Eickhorn Waffenfabrik AG (Eickhorn) in conjunction with the Dutch firm, Nederlandsche Wapen en Munitfabriet N.V. (N.W.M.) developed a new bayonet system for the U.S. Stoner assault rifle. The bayonet was copied from the Soviet wire-cutter bayonets. This bayonet was designated the KCB-70 M1. They also made prototype bayonets for the Belgian FN-FAL (KCB-70 M2) and the H&K G3 assault rifle (KCB-70 M3). The KCB70 M1 also fits the US M16 rifle.
The blade is flat, bowie pointed with a serrated top edge. The Eickhorn squirrel logo is stamped on the left side of the blade above the NWM logo. The grip is made of a hard black plastic. These grips are extremely brittle and many of the KCB-70 M1 bayonets I have seen have cracked plastic. There is a plastic screw that goes crossways through the grip securing it to the blade tang. A single screw in the butt end retains the pommel. The back side of the pommel has a removable block that is held in place by a small spring loaded plunger. When the block is removed it reveals a hollow storage space in the grip that was used to house a sight adjustment tool.
The scabbard is made from the same hard black plastic. It is equipped with an attachment at the bottom end that is used in conjunction with the bayonet to form a shear-type wire cutter. The plastic scabbard body has a protruding ring near the bottom to act as a stop, preventing the user’s hand from sliding down into the cutting area.
The second bayonet pictured is almost identical to the first. It has a dull finish to all of the plastic components and the metal parts have a much duller parkerized finish. This bayonet only carries the Eickhorn trademark on the blade.
Some of you might recognize the green label on the scabbard. This bayonet came from the late Len Conches and I just never removed the label. These bayonets are very similar to the KCB70 M4 that was featured back on Page 11.
Overall length 303 mm
Blade length 176 mm
Blade thickness 3.3 mm
Blade width 30 mm
Eickhorn KCB77
The KCB77 is a further refinement to the original KCB70 bayonet. The blade profile is almost identical. Eickhorn would adapt this bayonet for many of the current rifles in use around the world, either by modifying the latch assembly or providing an adaptor to be used on the rifle.
There were many variations made depending on which combination of features a particular buyer wanted. Some of these features are:
