Porter's Report
By Bill Porter
December Update
Once again we can thank Gary Cunningham for coming up with a new and exciting update. Gary forwarded a photo to me of the throat markings from a Taiwanese M7 scabbard. The scabbard pictured is from the collection of Tom Sciulli. I have handled dozens of these bayonets and scabbards but have never seen one of the scabbards with the original markings intact.
Thank you Gary and Tom for sharing this information with us.
January 2004
I hope everyone had a great holiday season. Let’s all hope for a joyous, happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year.
This month wraps up my foreign Garand bayonets. I’ve included the last four types from my collection plus one that was loaned to me by my good friend Stan Tranquillo.
Turkish M1 Bayonet
My friend Earl Stanford of Savannah, Georgia first brought this bayonet’s existence to my attention. When Earl heard that I was putting together the foreign M1 Garand bayonet display he brought along two examples of this bayonet for me to include in the display. Since then I have found the pictured example for my collection.
The Turks were masters at modifying bayonets. Any of you who have seen their handiwork know that they could make any bayonet fit any rifle. They were more concerned with function over form and most of their creations were far from pretty.
This bayonet started off as a standard Turkish Model 1935. The original muzzle ring was too large for the Garand so they added a plate with a smaller diameter ring to the backside of the crossguard. The plate is held in place by a single pin. The plate on this particular piece is very loose and will move side to side. Other examples I have seen have plates of varying thickness and most are securely attached.
Overall length 376 mm
Blade length 251 mm
Blade thickness 5.6 mm
Blade width 26.2 mm
German M1 Bayonet
This is a very interesting bayonet that is very frequently misidentified. I’ve seen it listed as an Italian experimental bayonet for the BM59 and as an Indonesian M1. It is actually a bayonet that was made by the German firm Horster in the 1950’s. It is very similar in construction to the Indonesian BM59 and Garand bayonets.
This is a very well made bayonet. The blade appears to be machined and fine machining marks are visible the entire length of the blade. There is a short, well-pronounced false edge. The blade and hilt are parkerized. The crossguard is rather crude and has several deep gouges in it. That is surprising because of the finish on the rest of the bayonet.
The grips are a molded hard black checkered plastic and are well fitting. The bottom of the grips wrap around the tang. The grips are unmarked. The pommel is brazed to the tang and the brass is visible when the grips are removed. The top of the exposed tang at the point it meets the pommel is painted black to obscure the brass.
The scabbard is a US M7 style scabbard that is completely unmarked. The entire scabbard is painted green. The bayonet is also unmarked with the exception of one stamping on the tang under the grips, "1a".
Overall length 360 mm
Blade length 251 mm
Blade thickness 5.6 mm
Blade width 26.2 mm
South Korean M5A1 Bayonet
This M5 is a South Korean copy of the US M5A1 bayonet. They were imported into the US about ten years ago along with the cut-down, heavily modified US M1 bayonets.
While almost identical in appearance, this bayonet is inferior to its US counterpart. The component parts seem to be much lighter in construction and the overall quality control lacking.
The front of the crossguard has the model designation and a circular symbol. One also has a three letter stamping that is assumed to be a manufacturer’s initials. A third example appeared to be unmarked but upon closer examination it was found to be marked on the rear side of the crossguard. I believe this was a manufacturing defect; the gas port stud was installed on the wrong side of the crossguard and the part was used despite this error.
The plastic grips are a very thin plastic that seems to be a bit softer than the plastic used for US bayonets. They are unmarked.
Two of the bayonets are in standard US M8A1 scabbards. The third is in a US M8A1 scabbard with the fiberglass body covered with sheet metal. The entire scabbard then appears to have been dipped in a thick green paint. The original markings on the throat are barely visible through the paint.
Overall length 288 mm
Blade length 170 mm
Blade thickness 4.3 mm
Blade width 20.7 mm
Guatemalan M1 Bayonet
This bayonet is a very close copy of the US M1 bayonet. The overall quality of the piece is comparable to the US manufactured bayonet. I believe the blade and hilt were originally parkerized but little of the original finish is intact.
porterkids@aol.comThe blade is marked on the left ricasso with EN S over E_ US with a flaming bomb. The left crossguard is marked K V with a five-digit serial number.
The grips are very similar to US grips. The underside of the grip is marked NOR intersected with LOC. I do not know the significance of these letters but assume they are the manufacturer’s initials. One interesting observation is that the latch lever is marked UC indicating that this is a US manufactured part.
The scabbard is identical to the US M7 scabbard. The steel throat is marked J7265708 over M7.
This is the only example of this bayonet that I have ever seen. I consider it to be one of the scarcest Garand bayonets.
Overall length 369 mm
Blade length 250 mm
Blade thickness 5.7 mm
Blade width 26.6 mm
Turkish M5 Bayonet
This bayonet comes from the collection of my good friend Stan Tranquillo. This is a great example of my earlier comments regarding the ingenuity of the Turks. This bayonet started out as a Turkish Ersatz bayonet for the Model 1890 and 1903 Mauser rifles. The original crossguard was removed and a new one with the gas port stud installed in its place.
The scabbard accompanying this bayonet is just as unusual as the bayonet. It appears to be fabricated from a piece of sheet metal that was wrapped to form the body then welded down the side where the material overlaps. A bracket is welded to the backside of the body for the web hanger to attach.
This is the only example of this type bayonet that I have ever seen.
That’s it for my collection of foreign bayonets for the US M1 Garand Rifle. I’ll continue to post updates and new information on this topic as it comes in. I hope you enjoyed it and found some part of it enjoyable and informative. Next month we’ll move on to a new topic.
Questions or comments can be forwarded to me at
