Item Description
Original Item: Very Few Available. This is an all-steel construction knife bayonet with scabbard, made for the Swedish Mauser Model 1896, and also used with the m/1938 Short Rifle and AG42b Ljungmann self-loading rifle. Overall length is 13 inches, with an 8 inch double edged spear-point blade.
The handle is hollow, and fits over the cleaning rod under the barrel, and this locks onto the rifle with an interesting pull catch. They were manufactured by three different companies, and often the bayonet and scabbard is a collection of different manufacturers. They were in use up into WW1, and were manufactured until around 1912. Each also has unit markings on the cross guard of the bayonet, and sometimes on the scabbard as well.
Ready to Display or use.
History of the Swedish Mauser M1896 Bayonet
The M96 or ‘Swedish’ Mauser was a longer variant of the M94, designed by Mauser for the Swedish military. Early versions were manufactured by Mauser, but the contract specified that only supplied Swedish steel could be used in their construction. Sweden soon manufactured their own rifles at the Carl Gustav factory, and later in smaller numbers at Husqvarna.
The M96 bayonet served the Swedish military through more than 80 years and two service rifles. The Swedes liked it so much (and had so many in storage) that they carried it over from the 19th-century M96 to their first postwar autoloader. The AgM42 ‘Ljungman’ carried the M96 bayonet from the late 1940s until the rifle’s retirement in 1964, and some Swedish rear-echelon support units even carried the bayonet (still attached to the incredibly-obsolete M96) until 1983.
The M96 bayonet has a spear point and a sturdy 8.25″ blade, typically sharpened only on the forward edge. The barrel band is integral to the hilt, and the hollow steel handle has a spring-loaded lug for mounting to a rifle. The knife has a hand-filling grip and good balance, and the excellent proportions of the blade give it the appearance of a miniature Roman gladius. The angled mounting lug near the pommel also aids in gripping and retention.
The blade has a split tang just over an inch long, which threads around a plug inside the top of the handle. They don’t really disassemble, but somebody managed to take one apart once to see how it was assembled. Despite the apparent weakness of a threaded partial-tang blade, M96 blades are not known to break off from their handles. Bayonet practice puts extreme stress on blades and mounts, and many M96 bayonet scabbards are dented and beaten from years of training abuse but the blades are still firmly attached.
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