1901 Krag bayonet brought back to life

[greenmntranger]

About a year ago, my wife returned from a day out yard sale shopping with a much used/abused 1901 Krag bayonet. the blade had been broken and reground, the muzzle ring had been ground off at some point in it's hundred plus year journey and the slabs had been replaced with raw hickory, and machine bolts.

After I stripped the slabs off, the blade found a place on my workbench as a utility knife until early spring when I found a really nice whitetail shed while out snowshoeing and an idea was born. Why not make a "rifleman's" knife out of it.

Here's the knife as I got it w/ the antler base cut to length

http://imageshack.us/a/img840/4859/imag0009iu.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/840/imag0009iu.jpg/)

Then out came the Dremel and after some time, I had the tang profile about right.

http://imageshack.us/a/img406/1141/imag0012qj.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/406/imag0012qj.jpg/)

Once I had the tang ground it was time to work on the handle.

Marked out and ready to drill

http://imageshack.us/a/img441/8185/imag0018q.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/441/imag0018q.jpg/)

drilled out:

http://imageshack.us/a/img833/2412/imag0020uk.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/833/imag0020uk.jpg/)

rough fit:

http://imageshack.us/a/img856/6311/imag0021dk.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/856/imag0021dk.jpg/)

The first hiccup I came to was forgetting to recces the handle to accommodate the point where the hilt is attached to the blade. After some more Dremel work, I got a good fit

Wanting a little accent, I decided I wanted a brass spacer. Not finding one that fit my needs online, I scrounged up a spent .50BMG shell and again, out came the Dremel and I had my raw material for the spacer

http://imageshack.us/a/img254/1324/imag0094l.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/254/imag0094l.jpg/)

I traced out the rough shape of the spacer and the spacing for the hole for the tang and went to work with the drill and files until I was satisfied.

The next step was securing the tang in the handle...to that end, Loc-Tite two part heavy duty epoxy did the trick.

And here is the finished knife...not an art knife by any stretch, but a solid, working knife brought back to life on the cheap

Blade is 8"
OAL is +13"


http://imageshack.us/a/img222/6696/imag0098e.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/222/imag0098e.jpg/)

GMR

[John Boy]

[smilie=s: Ranger ....:drinks:

[helice]

That looks useable. Nice job.

[blikseme300]

Nice job. Projects like these are what differentiates us cast boolit folk from the general gun owning population. Mass production has not destroyed the abilities and skills that people develop to better their lives.


Bliksem
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