thorin6

Skip, You'll get the hang of it. I never post pictures until I've finished with the narrative. On your two M4s shown, are the guards marked with the manufacturer's name or blank, and are they WW2 or post-WW2 (wider)?

From top to bottom, Camillus blsde marked, rubber handle M4 Camillus rubber handled M4 my father carried Camillus wood handle M4 TMN plastic handle M4 Kinfolks WW2 M4 bayonet with plastic handle Camillus leather handle M4 Korean War era A note on the blade marked M4. I am of the opinion that this one did not start out as a bayonet. I believe it was an M3 that had a deteriorated leather handle and was in the same batch that the M4s were. When they began adding the rubber handles they would have been instructed to make only M4 bayonets, so the pommel was remove and an M4 guard added. However the handles had to all be the same to fit in the mold and after cutting off the pommel the tang it was too short. The solution was to cut away some of the shoulder of the M3 so it would fit in the mold. If you look closely at both my M4 and Misfit 45's old M4, you can see that the space behind the runout is shorter than the ones on the other bayonets. Just a theory.

Just as an aside, I don't know if this is Misfit 45s long lost blade marked M4, but I picked this up off ebay when Skip pointed it out. Its the top one in the picture.

All I have is a 2nd Div liner, but it will do for now. Those helmets are just awesome.

As I've stated several times in past posts, my father served in Korea in 1852-1953 with the 40th Inf Div, and he carried and brought home a rubber handled M4 bayonet from that conflict. I have that bayonet in my possession today and it is much as Misfit45 described; there are some other subtle differences between it and the TMN in the OP's post. I have no doubt that they were present in the Korean War, but where they were made is unknown.

Need to take this to the Edged Weapons forum, however, rubber grips were added both during and after the Korean War, some by the military, some by commercial firms.

Pictured would help.

Here's what you generally see. The patch was added post WW1 for parades and ceremonies. The helmets were rubbed to make them smooth and then the patch painted on.

Looks right, nice set.

Here's mine, different lot/maker. I did like you and matched it with an early solid bottom MkII. The grenade was demilled by drilling three holes in the side, which are covered up by the spoon and the spoon holder.

I think the tack on some of the M1Cs was coming loose, and some GIs added additional sewing to reinforce the original tack. I remember (if it's to be trusted) seeing a couple of helmet straps where the loose additional sewing could be observed. Hopefully someone else can chime in here.

Could you post the picture or a link; not sure what you are referring to?

Some time ago I noticed that many M1Cs fell into that transition period between moving from front seam stainless steel rims to rear seam magnesium steel rims, and are a mix of those plus the front seam magnesium steel rims and rear seam stainless steel rims. I understand these would have been made October thru November 1944. Yours fits that period and is a nice addition to your collection.

From personal experience I've seen more blade marked than guard marked PALs, and very few bladed dated ones.

Skip, Somewhere I read that guard marked PALs were harder to find than blade marked or bladed dated ones. Bill