Porter's Report
By Bill Porter
November Update
This month’s information update was presented by our website resident expert, Gary Cunningham. Gary sent me a photo of the front of his Taiwanese M7 style scabbard. Any of you who have one of these in your collection know that the front of the throat is very heavily ground, apparently to remove whatever markings had been there, and painted with a heavy coat of OD paint. Gary was able to photograph the remnants of the mark using some creative lighting techniques. The mark looks like the US Ordnance mark with the crossed cannons. Does anyone else have one of these scabbards with a similar mark? Any input as to what the emblem might represent? The scabbard pictured in Atlas de la Baionnette de Collection Tome 2 on page 355 has the remnants of the same mark.
Thank you Gary for sharing this information with us.
December 2003
I contemplated switching things up this month and posting a few of my US rarities, but decided to hold off with that until I finished with the Garands.
Pakistani M1 Bayonet
My identification of this bayonet is taken from Bayonets From Janzen’s Notebook. In the book, Jerry Janzen stated that his identification of this bayonet was purely speculative and he received the information from an importer who was selling these and other Pakistani bayonets. The bayonet is a US manufactured M1905 with the blade shortened and the tip ground to resemble the overall appearance of the British L series bayonets. The grips are standard US manufacture. The right crossguard is stamped "4T". The balance of the markings are standard US marks.
The scabbard is a standard US M7 scabbard. It is painted with a heavy coat of dark green paint that obliterates any markings that may be there.
Overall length 318 mm
Blade length 202 mm
Blade thickness 5.4 mm
Blade width 26.4 mm
Danish M1 Bayonet
Here’s one more example of sticking with a design that works. This bayonet has the Danish designation M50. The entire piece is an exact copy of the US M1 and is manufactured in Denmark. The left side of the blade is marked Crown over FKF over 1955. According to Gary Cunningham in American Military Bayonets of the 20th Century, FKF stands for Forsvarets Krigsmaterial Forvalning (Defense War Material Administration). The insides of the grips are completely unmarked.
I know of two different scabbard variations for this bayonet. Both of them are Danish manufactured copies of the US M7 scabbard. The first has a wood grained body that has been painted green. The steel throat is marked on the front with a crown over FKF. The second scabbard has a dark, very fine weave fiberglass scabbard that has also been painted green. The steel throat on this one is marked crown over FKF over 1955.
These scabbards have a wire hanger identical to the US hanger. This was not compatible with the Danish web belt and a cotton web adapter was made to use the US style scabbard on the Danish belt. Several years ago these scabbards were available in quantity on the US surplus market. Today you see many US M1 bayonets for sale that are paired up with one of these Danish scabbards.
Overall length 368 mm
Blade length 249 mm
Blade thickness 5.7 mm
Blade width 26.4 mm
Norwegian Cadet Bayonet
This bayonet is used by the cadets at Norway’s Military Academy. It is a US manufactured M1 bayonet with the hilt painted black. It has it’s original US markings and no other special marks. The scabbard is also painted black. The standard wire hanger has been removed and a black and red leather hanger has been riveted to it. The US ordnance bomb is still visible on the face of the scabbard throat.
This is a fairly uncommon bayonet. I’ve only seen two or three of these in the past few years.
Overall length 367 mm
Blade length 250 mm
Blade thickness 5.8 mm
Blade width 26.4 mm
Danish M/62 (US M5)
This bayonet is a copy of the US M5. The construction is almost identical to the US model. This bayonet is well made. There are visible finish marks on the blade. All the metal components appear to have a phosphate finish. The grips are a checkered plastic with no markings on the interior surface. The only markings on the bayonet are found on the end of the pommel; a crown over HTK, which according to Gary Cunningham in American Military Bayonets of the 20th Century stands for Haerens Tekniske Korps (Army Technical Corps.)
The Norwegian manufactured scabbard is similar in design to the US M8 scabbard. The scabbard body is a brown wood grain. The web hanger is equipped with the dual metal hooks to attach to the Danish web belt. The front of the metal throat is marked with a crown over HTK.
This was a relatively scarce bayonet until a few months ago. There has been a recent abundance of these Danish M62 bayonets. There are some slight differences between the illustrated bayonet and these recent arrivals to the surplus market. The current bayonets are manufactured by Eickhorn. The older version was made by Horster. The newer version is not paired with a wood grained scabbard but a new USM8A1 scabbard that is marked "Made in Germany". I have not personally examined one of these bayonets yet, but hopefully will have by next month and will update you then.
Overall length 289 mm
Blade length 170 mm
Blade thickness 4.5 mm
Blade width 21.3 mm
Well, that wraps it up for another month. Next month will probably finish up the Garand bayonets and then we’ll move on to something else. As always, I look forward to any input or comments you may have.
I’d like to wish everyone a belated Happy Thanksgiving and a happy, joyous and healthy upcoming holiday season. In reflecting on the season and our hobby, the words of my good friend Jim Maddox come to mind; "We should all keep in mind that nothing is forever and that we are only the temporary custodians of these edged weapons. The friends, experiences and memories are far more important than the brass., steel and leather that we prize so highly."
Questions or comments can be forwarded to me at
porterkids@aol.com
