Spanish Bayonet - M1964 (CETME model C). Short Bolo Blade

C

Cam T

Joined
Dec 7, 2022
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Just picked this up for $3 at a garage sale. I think we both thought that it was just worn down, but after a bit of research it turns out that it's a bolo style blade.

It's made for a CETME rifle and is stamped with both the Toledo Coat of Arms and the CETME factory crest. The blade is 8.75", total length is 13.25" and comes in at an even 1 lbs. Has checked plastic grip and has a unfullered bolo blade. Never had a metal sheath before and it definitely has a very satisfying sound as the blade sheathed.

https://imgur.com/a/Jv38CZt

https://imgur.com/a/ExWv7hQ
 
Rostovsky said:
It's just that someone had an electric grinder at home and not very skilled hands.
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No, that bolo shape blade is the original design. They make fairly good knives. I use to take one on camping trips, the sturdy design and sheath worked well for our wet conditions. The blade can take a decent edge with a little work.

Similar blade shapes were also used on Spain’s 1907 artillery sidearm, 1941 bayonets and the Spanish mountain troop knives (aka Spanish Special Forces Bolo).

N2s
 
I'll admit that I refused to believe that bayonet was anything other than a straight edged bayonet that met a grinder....until I looked up the CETME bayonet and saw image after image of the same blade shape. Weird. It's as if the Spanish tried to turn a straight bayonet into a bolo-esque shape by grinding a big crescent out of the blade.
 
It's generally considered a terrible bayonet and/or tool, but having hefted it around for awhile and at 1lbs its probably not bad for the zompocalypse. Ironically, there was was a historic regiment in the Philippine Republican Army called the "bolomen" or Cuerpo de Armas Blancas (Corp Armed with Knives) that was organized to fight the Spanish. I guess the Spanish had run in with this type of knife during their bad old colonizing days and took it to heart.
 
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The US Army issued a bolo bayonet that was actually bolo-shaped to troops in the Philippines prior to WWII. They were initially for the Krag and later for the 1903 Springfield. Apparently it worked well.

 
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