Bayonet ID help needed

**Jenko** · 08-21-2013, 07:16 PM

Need some help to identify the following bayonet, it looks like a British 1856 sword bayonet but quillion is wrong, all help gratefully accepted. Thanks in advance for all input.

**Jenko** · 08-21-2013, 07:21 PM

For some reason text above photos not showing, should read as follows.

Need some help to identify the following bayonet, it looks like a British 1856 sword bayonet but quillion is wrong, all help gratefully accepted. Thanks in advance for all input

**lithgow** · 08-21-2013, 07:53 PM

Looks similar to the Swiss M1867 'Sharpshooters' pattern bayo but not identical-has the backswept cross guard though.

PS Also resembles the Norwegian M1855 but again some differences.

**Spitace41** · 08-21-2013, 08:08 PM

Its an 1856/58 bayonet, a variation of the 1856 bayonet. Differences are the leaf spring being secured by a screw not a rivet. After 1873 many were converted for use on the Martini Henry. Information from "Bayonets" by Martin Brayley.

**douglas2496** · 08-21-2013, 08:24 PM

Yes, but my 1856/58 pattern bayonet is secured by a screw not a rivet, and it dosnt have the bent back quillon (indeed Brayley shows one of these in the book). Brayley also shows a near matching bayonet to the one in this thread, with a bent back quillon but with a brass pommel, which he describes as an 1856/58 volunteer bayonet.

Edit; no thats wrong, the caption is contradictory. It says the top bayonet is a standard 1856/58 bayonet (which it isnt) and that the middle one has a brass pommel (which it dosnt), so we have to guess what Brayley means. However, I think he almost certainly means what I said first, and therefore this could be a volunteer variation.

by Spitace41

Its an 1856/58 bayonet, a variation of the 1856 bayonet. Differences are the leaf spring being secured by a screw not a rivet. After 1873 many were converted for use on the Martini Henry. Information from "Bayonets" by Martin Brayley.