This Model 1816 shows a US/JR inspector’s mark on the base of the blade along with a small script “W” and a rubbed letter or number in between. The socket also bears an alpha-numeric stamp “A 31” that may be a batch code, which Reilly felt indicated manufacture at Springfield or Harpers Ferry. This was carefully cleaned and is, correctly, in the bright, with some gray spotting at the base and gray areas toward the tip. An old label on the socket indicates it was found with an 1817 dated Springfield. The initials under the US on the blade are a tad indistinct on the edges and might be an “IB,” but “JR” is among the stamps noted by Reilly.

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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