Original Item: Only One Available. This is an excellent condition U.S. M1942 bayonet for the M1 Garand Rifle, complete with the correct WWII Issue M3 scabbard. Technically, this bayonet is considered an M1905 bayonet by the U.S. Army, manufactured in 1942 with plastic ribbed grips. The M1 Garand rifle was designed to take the same blade bayonet as the M1903 Springfield rifle, so at the beginning of the war they were issued with bayonets originally made for those rifles. To keep up with Wartime production, new orders were placed for a version of the M1905 bayonet with plastic grips, and collectors use the designation M1942 for these bayonets, made from 1942 to 1943. Six civilian firms produced 1,540,578 M1905 bayonets from April 1942 to May 1943. Of these, only 250,000 were made by Oneida, making this a very desirable maker.

After this, the specification was changed to have a 10 inch blade, and many M1905 bayonets were shortened to this length. This bayonet however is still in the original configuration, which is rare to find on the market today.

The blade ricasso is marked with maker OL (Oneida Limited) above U.S. around the Ordnance flaming bomb. Below this is the manufacture date of 1942. The reverse ricasso has an extremely faint U.S. Ordnance crossed cannon proof mark. The parkerized finish on the blade and handle is in good condition, with the expected wear of age but does show very minor staining and oxidation.

The original M3 scabbard is marked US over the Ordnance "Flaming Bomb" on the parkerized steel throat and is in good condition. The B N marking on the underside of the metal throat lip indicates manufacture by Beckwith Manufacturing, who produced a variety of thermoplastic impregnated cotton fabric scabbards during the war. The N is for New England Pressed Steel, who made the steel throats under contract with Beckwith. The finish on the throat is worn, with just a bit of corrosion. The scabbard body has no cracks but does have chips, and the paint only shows minor wear on the edges.

A very nice clean 16” M1942 Garand bayonet with original scabbard! Ready to display or fit on your Garand Rifle.

Specifications:
Blade Length: 16"
Blade Style: Single Edged with Fuller
Overall length: 20 1/2“
Crossguard: 3 1/2”
Scabbard Length: 17"

The M1905 bayonet was produced from 1906 to 1922 by Springfield Armory and Rock Island Arsenal. The blade and handle frame were forged as a single piece with a wide, square-shaped fuller, and the crossguard was pinned to this assembly through two holes with cone-shaped steel pins. The ribbed hand grips were made of walnut wood and attached to the handle with a screw. The screw also held the catch mechanism, manipulated with a button under the crossguard, that was used to fix the bayonet to the rifle's bayonet lug. In mid-1941, it was decided to restart production of the M1905 bayonet.

To simplify production, these later bayonets had handles with black or dark red ribbed grips, made of phenol formaldehyde resin, the earliest type of synthetic plastic. Production was scheduled to begin in January 1942, but the first bayonets were not delivered until April, with quantity deliveries not beginning until the summer of 1942. Despite initial setbacks, the M1905 bayonet was manufactured in sufficient numbers to keep up with the widespread introduction of the new M1 Garand rifle in 1942. By the end of 1942, all six manufacturers had changed the shape of their fullers to a narrower, round-bottomed shape. The later version of the M1905 bayonet with plastic grips is sometimes referred to as the "M1942" by collectors and historians, but this designation was never used by the Army