MK 1 Ross Rifle Bayonet Hunting Knife

[Mordecai]

Hello, I've had this Bayo/knife conversion for a few years now. I bought it at a flea market I frequent for 40$ or so.
If I remember correctly a company in the 1940s (PAL?) bought roughly 2000 Ross Rifle Bayonets from the Canadian government to be converted to hunting knifes by cutting the blades down to roughly 7 3/4 inch and milling the lugs flush.
Its not uncommon to find these without scabbards as they were not given as many scabbards as there were knifes.

These knifes are almost entirely found within the States and it is unlikely they ever saw theatre use as proved by the sold out of service stamp (*).

It just so happens the one I found was a Mark 1 with reminents of the 'step' on the cross guard aswell as the muzzle spring still being attached on the inside though most of these conversions were done to Mk 2 bayonets i believe.

Even if its a shame these were 'chopped up' they are still a neat piece of history, afterall during WW2 hunters were probably using whatever hunting knifes they could get their hands on with production entirely focused towards the war effort.

Not to mention these are probably some of the best Bayo/Knife conversions I've ever seen.










Apologies for the fuzzier images here. It was hard to get my phone to focus

Here you can see possible Initials and the Muzzle Spring typical for Mk 1 ross rifle bayonets.


Thanks for any replies or additional comments regarding the history of these conversions!

[Chopperman]

That's a really interesting knife.
The first time that I have seen one.

[MAP]

Nice. Any scabbard to go with the knife?

[Mordecai]

Unfortunately, I do not have a scabbard for mine. The scabbards for these were the standard Ross rifle bayonet scabbards cut down.

Here is what the cut-down scabbards looked like.

link to where i got the photo: Attention Required! | Cloudflare




I also found a post on Milsurps by a fellow named 'oldpaul' who quoted a book
Link:Ross bayo made into a theatre knife

" From pages 316-317 TRRS.
"Hunting knives were in short supply in the Second World War which resulted in the conversion of some Ross bayonets and scabbards for this purpose. in March and April of 1944, 2,209 bayonets and 1,963 Mk1 scabbards were declared surplus and sold to William Margolin, 5094 Victoria Avenue, Montreal. He paid twelve cents each for the former and three cents each for the latter. The bayonets and scabbards were shipped to Pal Cutlery Company, Holyoak Massachusetts, for altering.
The RCMP brought to the attention of the military that the mustering-out of service, or better, the Government Sales Mark, was not on all the bayonets and scabbards sold. The Canadian Sales Mark on released military equipment is two broad arrows point-to-point within the letter"C" and in this case stamped across the pommel and the ground off release button. This was done after the button was screwed down tight to render the bayonet catch unserviceable. The imprint was required to be clear, permanent, and not to obliterate the government markings on the metal or the leather.
On August 11, 1944, Lieutenant-Colonel B.M.Webb, acting for the Chairman of the A.S. & D.B., immediately rectified the ordinance officer's neglect. Retailers and purchasers, shared the responsibility and were subject to investigation by RCMP.
This point seemed to be of sufficient concern that a man from the Armourer Shop with dies was sent to the premises of K&G Distributors Limited , 754 Wellington Street West, Montreal, to supervise the making of the knives and scabbards. Two men spent about three weeks doing this, completing the work in the week of August 30, 1944.
The Wartime Prices and Trade Board (in notification5128 to Wholesalers) listed the "Hunting Knives with Leather Scabbard" for $3.75 each FOB Montreal, sales tax included.
The same notification stated that the price to retailers was to be $5.00 each FOB Montreal, tax included, and that the retail value was not to exceed $7.50 anywhere in Canadaicon."
If I read this right, these were not "Fighting" knives, but Hunting knives meant to be sold to the general public. The caption on the bottom of the picture reads,"Plate 366A: Mk1 and MkII bayonets altered to hunting knives. Records found to date indicate only Mk1 bayonets were altered. The right knife(upper) was made from a Mk1 bayonet and the left knife (lower) was made from a MkII bayonet. Regards. Tom "


From the last bit I am unsure if this means that PAL was only sold Mk1 bayonets on paper and they recieved some Mk2's aswell or that another company perhaps altered mk2 knifes to a similar spec.
Either way I suppose my "though most of these conversions were done to Mk 2 bayonets i believe." statement is false as it seems mostly Mk 1 bayonets were converted by PAL.
From what I can tell PAL never marked any of the conversions.