Garand bayonet

P

Peak_Oil

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Nov 6, 2005
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I have a Garand bayonet I've tried sharpening with a Spyderco Sharpmaker. Nothing seems to work. I have the diamond sticks, the brown sticks, and the white sticks. I can't get past tearing paper with the diamond sticks. Any suggestions?

I'm 90% of the way to abandoning the idea of sharpening this bayonet and just letting the sharp point do it's work.
 
A bayonet is so far from sharp that sharpening it the first time takes a lot of work -- especially with a Sharpmaker; that tool isn't designed for hogging off large amounts of metal. Start with a file or a very coarse bench stone or coarse sandpaper.
 
A bayonet is not a knife, though it usually resembles one. I've never seen one that it was practical to try to put a good edge on. If you want to learn more about the way Garand bayonets were intended to be used, look for a small book titled Cold Steel. I think the author was John Styre or something. At one time it had been reprinted by Paladin Press, so some should still be available somewhere. Several decades ago this book was used as a training manual on various aspects of hand-to-hand combat by the USMC I believe. It is filled with photos to illustrate what the author is writing about, and if you want to see somebody who "looks the part" you should see the fellow in these photos! The book deals with bayonet, knife, stick, and unarmed combat. It's worth having.
 
I sharpened my Springfield bayonet after 35 years of failures. It just couldn't be done without power tools, in my case, HF's 1x30 sander. That hardened 1095 steel still wore out a couple of belts, but I finally did get a superb edge.

Sharpen manually? Waste of time. Useless!
 
I sharpened my 12" bladed Enfield bayonet with a file. I had to take the blade coating that covered where the edge was supposed to be off. I couldn't get a working edge on it, but it IS plenty sharp enough to be used as a short sword. I also put an edge on the swedge. In short, use a file!:)
 
I have sharpened bayonets in several different ways. A file will do a good job, but it will take some time to do the job. Use the longest file you can find for speed (and to reduce the probability of cutting yourself). A belt sander will do a good job and is faster--if you have one. Expect to do a lot of work with a coarse (60 to 80 grit) belt before you move on to finer grits. A bench grinder works if you are careful and experienced. The trick is to remove enough material before you do anything that looks like normal honing.
 
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