The Evolution of Socket Bayonet Manufacture

Explores the origins, design, and manufacture of historical socket bayonets, emphasizing their evolution and innovations.

In the case of military muskets and rifles the bayonet was, and still is, an integral part of the ‘weapon system’. There are many excellent books covering the history of the bayonet in its myriad varieties adopted and used by the armed forces of the world. These books provide a wealth of detail on national variations and often include many rare, and in some instances, bizarre bayonets. They focus on the end of the bayonet’s story and do not cover its beginning – the conversion of more or less amorphous pieces of iron and steel into finished products. That is the focus of this publication.

It might be asked why, out of all the bayonets of the world, these three have been selected since at first sight they appear very ordinary and mundane when compared with some of their more ‘exotic’ brethren. However, as with the arms they were fitted to and whose manufacture has been covered in two earlier companion volumes, they are the only bayonets whose manufacture is described in varying degrees of detail in contemporary publications. They also share another kinship since, like the weapons they fitted, the Russian M.1808 is a direct copy, and the Enfield Pattern 1853 bayonet a descendant of, the French M.1777. This bayonet was a major landmark in socket bayonet design. It may be distasteful and not something to be contemplated lightly, but the socket bayonet’s function at the end of a musket was to penetrate the body of an enemy in close combat. Earlier bayonets having a plain mortice or ‘zig-zag’ slot engaging with a stud on the barrel to hold them in place, might easily be removed from the musket by one or other of the adversaries twisting it in the wrong direction. Honoré Blanc’s design, with its medial locking ring, prevented such accidental removal and became the prototype for many, if not all, socket bayonets which followed through to the end of the 19th century.

Peter G Smithurst graduated in Chemistry and Biochemistry in 1968 spending several years as a research chemist before pursuing his passion for industrial and technological history, moving in to museum work.

Peter was appointed Assistant Curator of the Industry and Technology section of Sheffield City Museums in 1975 including the planning and opening of the Kelham Island Industrial Museum in 1982 leading to a promotion to Principal Keeper, Industry and Technology. In 1994 Peter was appointed Assistant Curator of Artillery at the Royal Armouries Museum at Fort Nelson before transferring to the Royal Armouries in Leeds for its opening in 1996.

In 2001, Peter became the Executive Director at the American Precision Museum in Windsor, Vermont housed in the Robbins & Lawrence factory where much of the technology for the mechanised manufacture of firearms, including the Enfield 1853 rifle, had been developed before finally returning to the Royal Armouries in 2002 retiring in 2009 as Senior Curator of Firearms. At that time, he also became the first to be appointed Curator Emeritus and continues that role today. Just prior to retirement Peter was appointed Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Huddersfield resulting in a PhD from the School of Engineering and Computing in 2020 for a study of the manufacture of the Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle-Musket and was subsequently elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2021.

Peter has published extensively on a variety of topics including cutlery manufacture and steelmaking but particularly on arms and armour, These have been both books on specific weapons, such as the Enfield Pattern 1853 rifle and the Gatling Gun, but also numerous articles relating to historical and technological aspects of ballistics, artillery, firearms, ammunition, edged weapons and arms manufacture.