Yeomanterry Posted 4 February , 2015 Share Posted 4 February , 2015 Hello all, this Knife was found in a house of a man who fought in WW1 in France, It was all together with his medals in a box. Any clues to its identity, it does not have a hole in the tang to make it a Bayonet and is sharp both sides of the blade. Unusual handle with the finger moulded grip. Angled Belt Clip on Scabbard. Blade is 8" long. Many thanks Terry Any help would be good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khaki Posted 4 February , 2015 Share Posted 4 February , 2015 At a guess I would have said ww2 or later, it has a similar blade to the M3 fighting knife and later bayonet. khaki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dman Posted 5 February , 2015 Share Posted 5 February , 2015 M3 had a handle of stacked leather washers . Blade is similar and the bent guard are like that of a M3 "trench knife" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M3_fighting_knife Could have been a M3 blade hat was rehandled at some point Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trajan Posted 5 February , 2015 Share Posted 5 February , 2015 Yes, that's not a WW1 blade but indeed one from an M3. Trajan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike_H Posted 5 February , 2015 Share Posted 5 February , 2015 Terry I think you will find this is Italian, 1930's or later. The slanted belt loop is typical of the scabbards of the Italian M38 folding bayonets. Google Images for Italian fighting knife WW2 - there are lots of similar hilts. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trajan Posted 5 February , 2015 Share Posted 5 February , 2015 I see what you mean Mike - although that blade in the OP is uncannily like an M3 for my liking as are a few of those 'Italian fighting knife WW2'... I also noticed that only a few of the 'Italian fighting knife WW2 period' blades had that false edge, and does that did have one varied from this M3 type of false edge to a less 'refined' version... And who's to say that some of those advertised as such are not mock-ups using an M3 blade? I guess what we need from Yeomanterry are blade dimensions (width at ricasso, length, length of cutting edge, length of false edge) - then I ask some friends who really like these things! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yeomanterry Posted 5 February , 2015 Author Share Posted 5 February , 2015 Thank you all for looking, Trajan, spot on, I had also asked my friend who has a big collection of Bayonets etc that he puts on show, n he has come back and agrees. He calls it a Black Shirt Knife. It has no emblem for the local Italian fighters but is of that ilke. Surprised to find one on Ebay without Scabbard and someone asking $300 for it. Is this about right? many thanks Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dman Posted 5 February , 2015 Share Posted 5 February , 2015 MVSN (Italian Acroymyn for Militia Volunteers for National Security) knife - this was the Italian Fascist milita "Black Shirts" (equivalent to SA ) Battalion size units (650 men) were attached as assualt elements to infantry divisions. Also were 3 complete divisions all were lost in North Africa. Were issued to every member - some were made with finger grooves in handle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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