This Model 1816 is from a collection of bayonets we recently acquired. It shows a US/TA inspector’s mark on the base of the blade, listed by Reilly among inspection marks. The socket also bears an alpha-numeric stamp that is likely a batch code. In this case, like another we are offering, there are two letters, one over the other and a number, here: “H” over a lower case “f,” followed by the number “26.” As with the other bayonet, a small “13” is at the rear of the mortise, possibly an individual workman’s number. Reilly felt alpha-numeric codes for batches of 2,400 bayonets each indicated manufacture at Springfield or Harpers Ferry. This was carefully cleaned and is, correctly, in the bright, with the blade shading to light gray with some darker spots, but with smooth metal and distinct stamps.

The model 1816 bayonet is a collecting category of its own. Nominally measuring 19 inches overall with a 3-inch socket and 16-inch blade generally with a blunt “slash” point (in Reilly’s words,) its production extended into the 1840s and its use extended well into the Civil War, with some replacements made even then. There were variations in the presence or absence of face flutes and the shape of the point up to about 1822, but the pattern is readily recognizable by the T-shaped bayonet lug mortise (which may have started about 1813) and integral bridge, that would keep the bayonet on the muzzle of the musket even if pulled forward when withdrawing the blade from a target or jarred by the recoil of discharge. They were generally finished in the bright, with some possible browned exceptions from 1822 to 1831, and a few tinned examples. Careful inspection resulted in high degree of uniformity, but there is a lot of variety in blade markings, where in addition to a “US,” the initials of an inspector, maker, or state may be found.    [SR] [ph:m]

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