Rebluing part of a bayonet?

[wsfbernie]

In my bayo collection, I have a 1917 dated SA to match my m1903 1917 dated rifle. I also have the older "two-tone" and newer
parkerized (1918) bayos. So far, I have only been able to find info saying the 1917 ONLY had a complete blue job. In fact, my 1917
unit is beautifully blue. Prior to 1917, the bayos were two toned and from 1918 on parkered. Most pictures of WWI show the bright
blades on the m1905 bayo being used by AEF. I have read that the parkering and bluing was done only to subdue the surface
brightness and not for metal protection.

[IditarodJoe]

My 1906 bayonet before stripping of the nickel-chrome plating



and after



I'm really pleased with the way it came out. The "after" photo makes it look a little pitted, but it isn't at all . . . just smooth bare metal with a little coating of RIG. Now to get it reblued. I've contacted Johnson Small Arms in Northwood, NH. They advertise that they do nitre bluing. Has anyone here had any experience with them?

[JB White]

How do you plan to address the difference between the original aged and worn grips to a freshly blued finish?

[IditarodJoe]

Well JB . . .that there is a darned good question! Any suggestions?

[IditarodJoe]

As I see it, I have three options:

1. I could buy a set of NOS (read "Chinese") walnut grips, replace the worn scabbard cover with a new reproduction cover, and have a new-looking "restoration" .

2. I could try to find out what well used 104 year old nitre bluing looks like and try to have it refinished to "look right" with the old grips and scabbard.

3. I could "rearsenal" it. My 1943 Garand came straight from a 1965 arsenal overhaul with the original, worn 1943 walnut lower handguard and a brand new, barely finished birch upper handguard. Those arsenal armorers didn't really care whether parts matched in terms of wear.

At some point, this bayonet has been shortened by 3/4 inch (my guess would be to restore a broken tip). It's been chromed, stripped, and will be refinished. It will never be a collector item. By the time I've finished messing with it, I could probably have bought an original one for about the same $$. So either I'm "a few rounds shy of a full clip" (likely) or it's just a labor of love.

What can I say . . .

[Johnny P]

The first thing is to tell your refinisher that the metal in the grip area was not highly polished to start with. With niter blue, the higher the polish the brighter the blue, and vice versa.

[JB White]

Since it's going to be a totally refinished bayonet I'd go with the repro grips and a new repro scabbard. Keep the original grips and scabbard for what they are. Save them as spares or sell them as unaltered originals to collectors needing those pieces. Selling them would also help defray part of the cost of the reproduction parts.

[chuckindenver]

im far from an expert on edged weapons...however...i could just blue the handle end , it would look like the bayonets shown, and would be black oxide coated,{hots salts blue}
to add to this post...the examples pictured were blued then polished.. you can see the low spots and the color inside the lettering.
also,
if your bayonet was plated before, and that plating wasnt removed correctly, no matter how nice it looks,,the chrome you missed will show up..
the only way to remove nickle or chrome, is to have a plater reverse the polarities, and float the plating back off.

[jonnyo55]

Those repro grips are pretty ghastly looking...what on the original were sanded or scraped "troughs" in the grips have been reproduced as sharply cut, very even grooves in the repro. Not good. Were it mine, I'd take a round jeweler's file and VERY SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY recut the troughs. For some reason, a mania existed at some point to sand down those "rough" grips!

[Bayonetman]

The bluing on the Model 1905 bayonet was not niter blue, but browning (rust bluing). The following description is taken from United States Rifles and Machine Guns by Fred H. Colvin and Ethan Viall and published in 1917. The process described is as done in 1916. There is a section on the Model of 1905 bayonet that describes each step in its manufacture.

"OPERATION 39 - BROWNING GUARD AND TANG OF BLADE. Number of Operators-One. Description of Operation-Same as other brownings, except care is taken to keep the blade bright; same apparatus as in other browning operations."

As a further comment, the bayonet began to be blued overall in May 1917. At first the full polishing operations were done prior to browning, but fairly early on the third polish operation was dropped as unnecessary and time consuming. This resulted in a duller blue as the metal was not brought to such a high degree of smoothness as before. This duller blue is sometimes called "War Finish Blue". The Parker Process did not begin until late 1918. I have yet to find a record of exactly when the bayonets began to be Parkerized but almost all 1918 bayonets I have seen were browned, not Parkerized.