Posted 9 years ago
Chrisnp
(310 items)
Entrenching tool is just my guess.
What’s known is that this is a British Pattern 1842 bayonet. It would have had a 17 ¼ inch long blade, but it is now 7 ½ inches, with a re-ground point. The blade is bent back, consistent with having been used to pry at something. Faint markings showing military issue are present, though mostly illegible. A piece of wood has been fitted to the socket, and it has the shank of a square nail plus another nail hole where the handle fits into the bayonet mortice. The wood also appears very well worn and aged. The item was purchased from a seller in England.
This is the kind of item that fuels the imagination, so let the speculation begin!
This pattern bayonet used in the Crimean War, 1854-56. In the Crimea, the British army was notoriously short of supplies, including tools, most of the time. Digging and entrenching were part of these soldier’s rough lives, and perhaps this came home as a soldier’s souvenir of hardship.
The Indian mutiny of 1857-59 continued to see wide use of these older bayonets in spite of issues of the new 1853 Enfields. Perhaps a mutinous Sepoy fashioned himself a weapon or tool from a discarded broken British bayonet, and when captured it was brought back as a trophy.
Or, perhaps the tool was fashioned for some little old lady from Devon to work her rose beds with. We’ll never know for sure.
Not quite a trowel bayonet but beats using your fingers. It seems being an entrenching tool is one of the more common uses for a bayonet.
Rare Confederate fighting knife!
Seriously, without documentation the garden shovel is just as likely. If you value and buy it as a cut down bayonet-- you'll never go wrong.
scott
Absolutely agree Scott. It could have been made by a civilian from scrap metal from a salvage yard, or it could have been used on some garrison in England as a pry-bar for opening crates. We'll never know, so I'd put the monetary value quite low - about what I'd pay for a relic condition bayonet. I hate to admit it, but shipping cost from England ended up costing me more than the sale price of the item, so I ended up paying more than I wanted for it - An eBay rookie mistake.
On the other hand, I agree with fortapache that use of bayonets for entrenching seemed to happen quite a bit, so I favor that explanation. The blade might have snapped off while prying with it (explaining the bend in the blade) and then the rest made into a field expedient hand tool for prying, digging etc. I bet we could both tell stories about field expedient contraptions we've seen in our military careers (usually involving green duct tape and parachute cord).
I think the least probable explanation is use as a weapon.
Chris
Thanks for the love kerry10456, Manikin, blunder, fortapache and aghcollect
Thanks for the love petey and vetraio50