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Japanese-made M4 bayonet repro


Bob Hudson
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I bought a footlocker and boxes full of stuff from a guy who served in the Army. Among the items was an M4 bayonet with - at first - no apparent markings. After taking closeup photos with flash, I found the mark. It says SPORTSWORD JAPAN. I checked google and found a reference to a pilot survival knife with this mark, but no bayonets.

 

It seems to be nicely made.

 

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Were these made for issue to the Japanese Defense Forces? Presumably they were armed by the US in the post-war period, including M1 carbines, well-suited to soldiers of a smaller stature?

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In my experience they are not common, looks a lot like some of the Kiffe versions and the S.A.B. marked ones. Would take a guess that they may have been made by the same company and marked for the importer.

 

I was told years ago that Sportsworld was a fairly large company or chain in the California area in the 60s or 70s but have never gotten any real information on them.

 

Top two are variants of the Kiffe (guard marked and blade marked, then S.A.B. / Ridgefield N.J. and the bottom is Sportsworld.

 

 

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Were these made for issue to the Japanese Defense Forces? Presumably they were armed by the US in the post-war period, including M1 carbines, well-suited to soldiers of a smaller stature?

I did some generic searches for Japanese made M4 bayonets and found on the forum some info about the more commonly seen ones marked KIFFE JAPAN. That led me to http://www.usmilitaryknives.com/bayo_points_14.htm which has some good info about these and says:

 

"The bottom one is marked SPORTSWORLD / JAPAN and is also fairly scarce. I believe that Sportsworld was a fairly large sporting goods house in the Chicago area back in the 60s and 70s but my memory may easily be faulty on this point. However, the bayonet is almost certainly a commercial item."

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Were these made for issue to the Japanese Defense Forces? Presumably they were armed by the US in the post-war period, including M1 carbines, well-suited to soldiers of a smaller stature?

-------------------------------------------------------------

 

Sabrejet,

 

As already explained, these bayonets were commercial copies. However, it is a fact as you will see in these 1951 photos of the National Police Reserve units of the Japanese Self Defense Forces, that they were armed with M1 carbines and I would guess with U.S.G.I. m4 bayonets.

 

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Gary- I have a question. Do you recall the US maker of the top M4 in the picture? The reason I ask is the top edge has almost a 90 degree cut. I had not seen this in US production M4s. Now early on there were M3s that had that,( ie Utica, which tended to snag when putting in an M8), but thought that they had the more curved edge worked out on M4 production. . Just an observation, with a question. THX SKIP

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Gary- I have a question. Do you recall the US maker of the top M4 in the picture? The reason I ask is the top edge has almost a 90 degree cut. I had not seen this in US production M4s. Now early on there were M3s that had that,( ie Utica, which tended to snag when putting in an M8), but thought that they had the more curved edge worked out on M4 production. . Just an observation, with a question. THX SKIP

Skip, my mistake! I went back to check, and the top one is a guard marked KIFFE, not a US version. I have corrected the post, thanks for bringing it to my attention.

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Gary- I was leaning toward a WW2 Camillus, but the blade wasn't quite right. Appreciate you taking the time to answer my question. THX SKIP

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  • 2 years later...

Friend at work brought in a bayonet for me to identify .....A Kiffe Japan M4 bayonet, is what he brought in...his story is that is great uncle brought in back after WWII...after readings through Bayonetmans web page and these threads...seems he brought it back in the 50's? Has am M8 Scabbard BM Co., Victory Plastics...

 

I thought it was/is a nice blade..with some wear to it...and was left wondering, after reading through pages on the Kiffe knife, how many were used as a private purchase item...seems like a GI would be issued a bayonet if needed...maybe a rear echelon guy or flightline mechanic for opening oil cans...

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To the best of my knowledge, the Kiffe M4 bayonets were made in the 1960s in response to the government selling off surplus carbines but not the bayonets. I don't believe they were made as early as the 1950s.

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The earliest date that I have found in Kiffe catalogs for the M4 bayonet is 1961.

 

Note the M1905 bayonets with M3 scabbards for $1.50 - wholesale was $1.00 each. Should have bought a few, I did buy one from a store in Cincinnati in 1961 for $5.00.

 

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more proof in...buy the item not the story...co worker, of course, sticks to the story...he didn't want to sell the bayonet, but was fishing for a price...don't think he was happy about the made in Japan stamp... and now the dates are wrong too...

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Just a thought about these getting into the supply system. When a soldier rotates or gets out of the service, he has to turn in his gear and any issued items that are missing he has to pay for. I can see a soldier either missing his M4 bayonet or wanting to keep his issued one. He goes out and buys one of the commercial ones (for less than he would have to pay) and turns it in. The supply Sargent (or armorer) wouldn't care who made it as long as he gets one to put in the rack.

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