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US Blades and Conetta M4 crosspieces

136 views 5 replies 3 participants last post by  sbo80  
#1 ·
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I'm trying to identify these blades I recovered from an old house. One has a factory blunted tip and no edge on the blade. Two have different Grip hole patterns than the others. The Crosspieces all have M4 Conetta. No pommels unfortunately.
 
#3 ·
The blades are unfinished M5 or M6 bayonets, not sure which (perhaps both), in different stages of completion. The "dent" just below the blade is where the release press and spring line up. Some have only the two grip screw holes drilled, but some also have the three pin holes for the release lever and slot plate. The "blunted tip" one is interesting. That's just how the blade comes out of the mold so it hasn't been fully shaped yet. But it already has the pin holes drilled. Which is a different order than the others who have had the blade finished but no holes. It also has a different shaped runout, very square compared to the round runout in the others. So it may be from a different manufacturer. But it also could be a reject or bad piece. Either way, none of these had yet been made into bayonets yet, the bottom hasn't been peened.
 
#6 ·
I would say yes. These are also really odd. The shape of these is the WW2 style, and the flaming bomb is the WW2 ordnance mark. But, according to Cunningham's book, Connetta didn't have a WW2 contract, they didn't exist as a company until 1946. They made M4s in the 1960's, and would have used the later shape adopted in 1953. He says they were probably for export and wouldn't have been ordnance marked. But even if they were, the flaming bomb was long replaced by the eagle/stars DAS stamp. The stamp font and size is also different than the example Cunningham has. There's a handful on ebay, and none of them look like this, they all look like Cunningham's. So I don't know what to make of these.