Re-hilted Bayonet?

[Chris Evans]

Hi Robert,

Originally Posted by Robert Coleman

I thank you all for your time and for all your effort on trying to identify this knife/sword. The grip is oval shaped, not round as if turned on a lathe. The tang goes through the grip and is then is peened over. I will post a picture of the end of the hilt and of the guard tomorrow. The overall shape of the hilt is very reminiscent of hilts of Spanish Colonial weapons. Please see http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=3404 Again I thank you all for your interest and help in trying to identify this unusual item.

Robert

I think that now we may be getting somewhere. and thanks for that link, a most interesting piece.

Until now I didn't want to drag in the Philippines as a possibility, but some time ago, in Australia, I was shown a double edged sword with a very similar handle and it was said to have originated from there. It is easy to forget that the Hispanic influence was pretty strong there too.

The part that has me most intrigued is the handguard, and would appreciate as much detail as you can spare with your time. Gonzalo could be right in that it may have been entirely hand made, as it definitely could be, but it would be a challenging task to get it all even and so symmetrical. From the photos, it appears to have some surface markings that could give us a clue as to how it was made. One of the quillon ends seems to have been slightly flattened and I wonder how. And how were those grooves cut so evenly? Perhaps you could run a calliper over the quillons and and check them for roundness.

Cheers
Chris

[carlos]

Maybe philippines? a mix between a spanish machete of the Fabrica de Toledo mod. 1881 and a new hilt.
Best regards

[Chris Evans]

Hi Carlos,

Originally Posted by carlos

Maybe philippines? a mix between a spanish machete of the Fabrica de Toledo mod. 1881 and a new hilt.
Best regards

Good point and quite a possibility. Any chance of a pic? What did the hand guard of this model look like?

IMO, a military provenance matches this piece better. We do know that the a large number of machetes were made and issued during the Spanish-American war.

And whilst Gonzalo thinks otherwise, to me the hand guard is more likely to have been made in a factory.

Cheers
Chris