Imperial M7 bayonet with USM8 Sheath

[danez71]

I bought this knife in a Army Navy surplus store approx. 30 years ago.

This is the only pic I have now but could take more tomorrow (going on a date with the wife in a few minutes. )

Its not in great shape. The guard is loose and one of the plastic handles broke (knife throwing) but both sides are there held by a big piece of shrink tube.

The clip has lots of surface rust but the blade is pretty much rust free... maybe even rust free.

Its an Imperial M7 bayonet with USM8 Sheath. My 1 minute search tells me its made by... Schrade?


What can the knife gurus tell me about it?

 

[NMPOPS]

more pictures ?

 

[col.lemat]

looks like a bayonet for the M16

 

[rcmodel]

Not much to tell.

Vietnam era M16 bayonet in poor condition.
Value is now in the $25 - $35 range, due to the unfortunate knife throwing incident.

Imperial was a separate company up until 1947.
During WWII, Imperial was the largest knife producer in the country, producing as many as 100,000 knives per day.

After WWII ended, all the old established knife company's were left with huge work forces, bills to pay, and no government contracts to pay the bills.

In 1947, Imperial, Schrade, and Ulster knife company's merged under the name Imperial Knife Associated Companies.

The company's once again reorganized in 1984 and became Imperial-Schrade Corp.

I imagine your bayonet is old enough to in fact be an Imperial, not Schrade in the truest sense of the word.

The sheath is period correct for the bayonet.

Rc

 

[kBob]

Just because rc forgot to mention it.....the blade itself is based on the old M3 fighting knife's blade. The M3 was issued to early M-1 Carbine users in leiu of a bayonet.

The blade and grip design was combined with a ringed guard and bayonet attachment on the butt to make the M4 Bayonet for use with later and reworked M-1 Carbines with a bayonet lug.

The blade design was then used for the M5 bayonet for the M-1 Garand

Later it was used for the M6 bayonet for the M-14.

Finally it was used for bayonets like yours.

Unfortunately many of the VN era blades were nasty and brittle, though some of the earliest M7 were made with blades that were of the quality of the older ones. In my first Infantry posting I was on detail in the Arms room and noted that the bayonet was an item of weapons issue and our sheaths were numbered to our rifle rack number so an individual could be responsible for each blade. I went through several bayonets of a sister platoon until I found a blade I liked and swopped out the sheaths so the sheath with my number no longer had a blade with striations and the appearance of broken teeth on the edge. Ain't I a stinker?

(edited to add): rc should post some of his customized M3 style blades now, they are very nice and it has been a while.

-kBob

 

[danez71]

Thanks guys. That's a lot of info.

What about the steel? What kind? Some were brittle?

....no longer had a blade with striations and the appearance of broken teeth on the edge...

Are these uniform striations perpendicular to the length of the blade?



I think I paid $10 for the knife and $3 for the sheath back around 83. There was a barrel of ea. that you got to pick from.