Turkish 1874 Peabody Martini bayonet

[msdt]

A friend in the States sent me a picture of a bayonet that has been in the family for a very long time. I identified it as an 1874 Peabody Martini (O/L and blade length exactly correct). But what about the grips - has anybody seen a regripping job like this and when was it done?

Cheers,

Tony

[trajan]

Quite a few of these were re-gripped apparently after service use, but all of the re-gripped and original length or period-shortened (i.e, pre-1918 or so) ones that I have seen have the usual number of rivets, five a side, in addition to the leaf spring. That said, I have seen photographs of a re-gripped and period-shortened example with a single copper rivet holding the grips in place, while some of the ones re-gripped when modified to M.1903 or 'M.1935' status have five or two rivets, and others have two screws.

Does this one have the press stud in place on the reverse? Those relegated to sidearm status usually had these removed, leaving the leaf-spring in place.

Julian

[msdt]

Hi Julian,

I have now heard from my friend that there is no press stud. Were they used by the Turkish military as sidearms?

Cheers,

Tony

[trajan]

I have now heard from my friend that there is no press stud. Were they used by the Turkish military as sidearms?

Hello Tony,

This is assumed to be the case, but there is little direct evidence for it. As originally produced, the MP yataghan bayonet was intended for NCO's, the soldiers being provided with a MP socket bayonet (and these are rare - I have exactly one!). I would imagine a change in function of these yataghan versions, from a NCO's fixable bayonet to a simple sidearm, could have come about after 1887 or so, when the first Mauser rifles were issued to Turkey, although Turkish soldiers in the Levant were (apparently) still carrying the MP rifle in the GW. I would guess that once relegated to a sidearm proper, then the press stud was removed simply because it got in the way! That aside, suffice to say that I have personal knowledge of five of the yataghan versions, and two were without the press-studs - so with this one that's three out of six missing them. I'll try and check around to see if I can find some more...

Interestingly enough, some of the earliest of the 'M.1935' series of Turkish bayonets, i.e., the ones made (often from other bayonets) before the mass-production of the 'M.1935' proper began at Kirikale, have leaf-spring attachment systems... I have never checked with the one example of these bayonets that I do have, but the suggestion has been made that these leaf springs were taken from obsolete MP yataghan bayonets.

Julian

[msdt]

Thanks for that Julian.

Tony

[sawdoc34]

I have 2 of sidearm versions, both with leaf spring but no button, 1 with wooden grips & rivets, the other with wooden grips & brass screw, both very sharp compared to my 2 leather gripped bayonets.

These are bloody hefty bayonets, wouldnt have liked to be the poor sod trying to fire his rifle with the bayonet attatched

Aleck

[trajan]

Hi Aleck,

Yes one of yours w/o the press stud was what I was including above...

Julian