Spanish FR8/HK bayonet coating & sharpening.

[Ignition Override]

Having bought this nice FR8 Mauser carbine weeks ago, it is my first bayo, other than the Chinese spike, which does never impressed me one bit.

The Spanish bayo seems to be coated with some sort of black paint.
This rifle's barrel, sights and maybe the bayo are duplicates of the CETME components.

If I have the blade sharpened, won't it rust much faster after losing the coating?

 

[M-Cameron]

....why do you want to sharpen a bayonet?


if you want a knife.....buy a knife......... bayonets generally make poor knives, the steel is usually too soft and wont hold an edge.



but to answer your question......technically yes.....but it should be nothing a light coat of oil wont handle.

 

[zhyla]

Yeah bayonets usually aren't sharpened. They're not for cutting, they're for poking. The "edge" I think is just traditional. Obviously, the Chinese spike design is just as good.

 

[Ignition Override]

Thanks.
I had no idea, but always liked the looks of real bayos compared to the Chinese spikes.
Those just look cheap compared to the Enfield #4 spikes.

 

[kBob]

Have fun with your bayonet and sharpen it and use it for a camp knife if you like. Wipe the edge with a dab of vasline or rigg grease or whatever once in a while if you store it un used. If you use it don't worry about it just keep it sharp. When I was in the Infantry we still had the old M-3 combat knife type blades on the M-7 bayonet. We sharpened the bottom edge and the "false" edge according to the armorers TMs recommendations using a hand cranked stone on a edge mount that had two guides on it, one for the proper edge on an Entrenching tool and one for sharpening bayonets. We also kept both front edges and the left side of the E-tool sharp to help in digging.

BTW in the old style (non reflexive) bayonet training there was training to slash if a thrust could not be made or as a follow up and the Combatives manual taught using slash or shop techneques for when using a bayonet as a fighting knife. Might want a sharp knife for those moves,eh?

THere are some crappy bayonets out there, some of our M7s were pretty poor for example.

The main reason most militaries and many US units did not sharpen bayonets was to reduce the amount of cuts on their own peacetime and garrison troopers.

When I reviewed an early Primus M9 bayonet for the M-16A-2 it arrived sharpened on the main edge and the sheath included a sharpening steel, an odd accutrament for a blade not meant to be sharpened.

From 1960 to 1985 the sheath knife I used most was an M5A-1 bayonet for the M-1 Garand The steel was at least as good as a Kabar and held an edge just fine.

The internet, you get what you pay for...or not even that.

-kBob