Advice on Australian Bayonet

[mace1288]

Hello All.
I would like to ask for your opinion on this bayonet - real or repro? It is a rare Australian Machette bayonet. Not normally my field. Any help would be appreciated.

[mace1288]

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[mace1288]

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[mace1288]

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[jager17]

looks fine to me, although the scabbard appears to have a lot more wear than the blade. I havent seen many of these, leave it to the aussies to have a machete bayonet!

[Milton]

By the large swell in the blade, I’m wondering if the rifle was able to be fired with the bayonet fixed? I would assume not, as it seems that the swell of the blade would impede passage of the bullet coming out of the muzzle? Is this indeed the case?

[mace1288]

You are right about not being able to fire the rifle with the bayonet fixed - this had not occured to me before. The aussies used mostly the No. 1 Mk3 rifle or the jungle carbine. Neither would be any good with this bayonet fixed. That's a pretty useless design.

The scabbard is actually in very good condition. The scabbard has copper rivets and they would age pretty obviously. The material for the scabbard looks to have been treated - I assume some sort of waterproofing agent, and the marks on the green make it look a lot more worn than it actually is.

[Milton]

Odd design aside, still a neat looking item imo. First I’ve ever seen!

[mace1288]

Someone just sent me this link:

http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/bayone...net-mk1-49097/

[andundiek]

This bayonet was for sale on a Dutch advert site a few weeks ago.

I was also interested in it and asked advice within a bayonet colectors group I'm a member of and was told the scabbard is original but the bayonet seems to be of a later date.

Hope this is of some help ;-)