I see this sword is now being sold on Ebay as  "French Napoleonic Short Sword US Civil War 4th MASS Calvary Unit Olustee Florida"

After returning to this thread, I reviewed my pictures from South Vietnam and found one with the detachment's sign over the team house.  The picture was taken the day the 1st Cav dusted CS to the north.  The other two pictures were taken when my dad was stationed at Saudia Arabia with the Training Mission in 1958-1959.

Mikie, having shot both the '03 and Garand I can say that certainly the recoil is lighter with the Garand as a result of it being a much heavier weapon.  Recoil is not bad at all on the Garand and I would say much less than say an '03 or K98 8mm Mauser (which I also have and shoot).

Hello everyone, There may be quite a few US car fans here. I think it would be a good idea to do a post on the subject. It would allow us to take stock of what's available depending on the model and the different markings and colors.    

. Hi mikie,   That's certainly NOT the correct / original handle, have you checked the axe head for manufacturer or such, The US army had belt mounted hand axes from around 1900 - 1945, forum Member Charlie Flick posted a thread about these.  good luck. !!       Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, May 03 2O25.   ….  

no one to identify the shell for me

Thanks Brian! Well the MIS had about 30 jump trained Nisei as translators, but other volunteers I’m not quite sure. 

Thank you for the recommendation of Kroil. I’ll take a look for some at my nearby Home Depot. Making this a wall hanger is the best my budget will allow. Before this I never actually handled an Garand before, none the less fired one. I’ve fired my Dad’s deer rifles in my younger days. One was an ‘03 Springfield, the other was an M1917. Dad  sporterized both of them. I really got a kick out of shooting them. I wonder if the Garand has a lighter recoil?  Thank you for looking in.  mikie

I found this axe at a garage sale a couple of years ago. I think I paid $1 for it. While certainly nowhere near as old as yours, it looks like it’s seen a LOT more use. Ugly beat up junky old thing. I love it! And it comes in handy around the yard all the time. 

I dug up the specifications for browning given by Springfield Armory to LF&C in January 1918 for their manufacture of sabers.  You may or may not want to skip the cyanide step.     In March of 1918, LF&C was authorized to also use a parkerizing process on the guards.  Further correspondence from LF&C in September 1918, requesting permission to skip the step of polishing the back of the guard before finishing, shows LF&C was still browning the guards and not using parkerization.  I can't recall seeing a parkerized LF&C guard.