Smithurst, Peter G. The Evolution of Socket Bayonet Manufacture

From Hand-craft to Mechanisation 1770-1860

In military muskets and rifles, the bayonet was and remains an integral part of the weapon system. There are many excellent books on the history of the bayonet in its countless variations, which have been adopted and used by the armed forces of the world. These books offer a wealth of detail on national variations and often feature many rare and, in some cases, bizarre bayonets. They focus on the end of the bayonet's history and do not deal with its beginnings the transformation of more or less amorphous pieces of iron and steel into finished products. That is the focus of this publication. One might wonder why these three bayonets were chosen, as at first glance they seem very ordinary and mundane compared to some of their more exotic relatives. However, like the weapons to which they were attached and whose manufacture was covered in two previous companion volumes, they are the only bayonets whose manufacture is described in varying degrees of detail in contemporary publications. They have another thing in common: like the weapons to which they were attached, the Russian M.1808 is a direct copy and the Enfield Model 1853 is a descendant of the French M.1777. This bayonet was an important milestone in the development of fixed bayonets. It may be distasteful and not something to be thought about lightly, but the function of the bayonet at the end of a musket barrel was to pierce the body of an enemy in close combat. Earlier bayonets with a simple tenon connection or a zigzag slot, which were connected to the barrel with a bolt to hold them in place, could easily be removed from the musket barrel by one of the opponents by turning them in the wrong direction. Honoré Blanc's design, with its central locking ring, prevented such accidental removal and became the prototype for many, if not all, socket bayonets used until