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French Bayonet 1866


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It's a French Yataghan style bajonet:

 

In 1840 the French produced a bayonet whose style was to affect bayonet design across the world for the next 50 years. The 1840 model had a distinctive recurved blade, based on the North African Yataghan swords. Why the shape was chosen is open to conjecture, the shape gave a longer reach with the long blade and the curve ensured that the blade was out of the bullet trajectory, of course it may just have been a styling exercise. There is a theory that the choice of blade was the best compromise for a blade between thrusting and slashing; In some areas the Yataghan bade replaced the infantry sword and the socket bayonet so this theory may hold, however in other armies the ordinary trooper in the field was never issued a sword, this being a status symbol for the "gentlemen" officers so the theory has a few gaps.

The 1840 had a brass cross guard and hilt with a steel scabbard, within 2 years this had been changed to a steel crossguard as the brass was found not to give the required strength and resilience. The 1842 model had a steel cross guard and a modified blade, a further modification to this was made in 1859 to give the 42/59, this had an internal spring instead of the external leaf spring, by this time the blade style had migrated to other countries with the USA in 1842, UK starting in 1853 with their first Yataghans. Over the next 60+ years virtually every country made a Yataghan styled blade, the last being made at the beginning of the 20th Century in South America

Now you know a little more about it.

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It's a French Yataghan style bajonet:

 

In 1840 the French produced a bayonet whose style was to affect bayonet design across the world for the next 50 years. The 1840 model had a distinctive recurved blade, based on the North African Yataghan swords. Why the shape was chosen is open to conjecture, the shape gave a longer reach with the long blade and the curve ensured that the blade was out of the bullet trajectory, of course it may just have been a styling exercise. There is a theory that the choice of blade was the best compromise for a blade between thrusting and slashing; In some areas the Yataghan bade replaced the infantry sword and the socket bayonet so this theory may hold, however in other armies the ordinary trooper in the field was never issued a sword, this being a status symbol for the "gentlemen" officers so the theory has a few gaps.

The 1840 had a brass cross guard and hilt with a steel scabbard, within 2 years this had been changed to a steel crossguard as the brass was found not to give the required strength and resilience. The 1842 model had a steel cross guard and a modified blade, a further modification to this was made in 1859 to give the 42/59, this had an internal spring instead of the external leaf spring, by this time the blade style had migrated to other countries with the USA in 1842, UK starting in 1853 with their first Yataghans. Over the next 60+ years virtually every country made a Yataghan styled blade, the last being made at the beginning of the 20th Century in South America

 

Now you know a little more about it.

good info there cheers
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