Old Bayonet

Slayer · Post by **Slayer** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 5:59 am

Heres something I thought some of you might like to see. Its an old french military bayonet I have in my collection. It has engraving on the back of the blade, that shows it belonged to a Lt. Etieme in 1882. Both blade and scabbord have matching serial numbers, and are in excellant shape, althought the blade is now dull.
I got it from my dad, who got it from his. I dont know much on the history of this blade, whether it is from France, or Canada, or its value, but I thought you might like to see it.

The original pic is nicer, but I had to resize it to fit here....

butch · Post by **butch** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 1:01 pm

very nice! it looks to be in very good condition.

Grim · Post by **Grim** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:25 pm

nice piece i love bayonets and dress daggers very cool

j.a.c. · Post by **j.a.c.** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:57 pm

wow , that's one long a$$ bayo .

wouldn't want to be on the recieving end of that.

Vagrant · Post by **Vagrant** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 4:15 pm

Lt. Etieme is probably a mis-engraved St. Etiene [the French Arms Works]

[beautiful piece]

MAS - manufacture de armes St Etiene
MAB - manufacture de armes Bayonne
my French sux but that's close

Slayer · Post by **Slayer** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 5:03 pm

You may be right Vagrant, I looked at the blade some more, and the engraving is a fairly ornate script,and a lil hard to read, so that "L" could definately be an "S"
I could take a closeup of the engraving, but I think it wouldnt show up clearly after resizing to fit here. I was wrong about one thing tho after looking at it again...its from February 1889 , not 1882.
Thanks for all the nice comments!

Edit: WOW! Thats it!! For years we've never been able to decipher the script on the blade, but after reading your reply Vagrant, its clear now! Mre d' Armes de St Etieme fevrier 1889
You sure know your stuff, thanks for helping to finally solve a decades long riddle!!!

Vagrant · Post by **Vagrant** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 5:12 pm

and MAB tells us where the word Bayonet came from

MAS link [in French]
http://perso.orange.fr/mias/

Dick Carroll · Post by **Dick Carroll** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 3:38 pm

mine differs a little. hopefully it will show in these...don't believe yours is dull....they never were sharp-edged....strickly pokey-sticky

Slayer · Post by **Slayer** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 6:40 pm

Cool....nice to see someone else has a piece of that old iron as well. Mine may look sharp in that crappy pic, but its actually dull, the good condition of the blade is what I think makes it look sharp.

Dick Carroll · Post by **Dick Carroll** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 2:35 pm

picked mine up at a flea market for $40. It is impressive with its length. Would be a nasty looking scene coming at ya.