Hello this is my first post,

I was hoping the forum might be able to provide a little more information on my short sword or hunting knife.

I have been told that it was found on a german battlefield by my great great aunt and is 15th or 16th. there is a hard wood handle and antler/bone tipped iron cross guard. One side of the blade is serrated and the other side flat edged.

The total length is 17" or 43cm, the visible blade is 12" or 30.5cm in length and 1 1/4" or 3cm at the widest point

There is a split in the handle wood but there than that it is in remarkably good condition if it is as old as i have been told. Good even patina on the blade with some small pitting and nicks from use.

I would be very grateful to get some opinion on the knife and find out a bit more its history

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Harry,

Maybe try uploading the images with Tinypic.com and then copy and paste.

I can't see the whole blade on the larger pic but that looks awfully like a privately bought, and so for civilian/hunting purposes late 17th to early 18th plug bayonet

I've edited your posts to make the image links work. Note, the reason I've coded this site to force members to use the "preview" function before posting is to avoid this.

Please make sure you preview your post to ensure that it is correct before posting it.

Looks a good deal like a plug bayonet to me, but I'm far from an expert in that field.

I agree, in my opinion it looks like a sort of hunting plug bayonet!

ahh, yes, def a non military plug alright. Very nice. Could of course be used as a knife/short sword, but much better for putting in your musket barrel whilst out hunting big angry critters. They have a long life span world wide but late 17th to early 18th in Europe.

Nice example. I can't think of any parallels with the antler lugs on the side, its a great item.

Ditto plug bayonet.

Mark, on the basis that a deal of kit was privately bought and this is clearly a status piece (officer?) why non military?

Tod