MKD Knives Combat Bowie WIP

...Despite being a friend of the Troll I'm begining to think you are a good guy. :D

He's an overgrown Bastige (like you) with too many cool grindy thingies in his shop... and a Trollnapper.

but he makes nice sharp pointy thngs.... his only personally redeeming quality... I have no clue what his wife sees in him...:-/
 
Personally I am a fan of the old M7 bayonet (just wish it fit on an M4); I think that keeping a dagger type point, with a thin blade is the way to go. There are many types of bayonet designs out there already; I think the key is KISS, with more of focus on light weight and durability. Having a wire cutter, saw serration and sheath that weighs as much as the bayonet is not the way I would go with it. I am not really sure it needs to have a real handle on it to be honest. Trying to dual role a field knife into a bayonet or vice versa, is just going to drive the cost up to a point where you’re going to lose a market base due to cost. I would go the other rout and build something incredibly light weight, hard as it can be, with the total design based around thrusting and slashing.

7” long, 1” wide, 3/16” thick, maybe some cutting serrations down one side, dual sharpened dagger point and a good hardy spine.
 
thinking out loud.... non knife geeks, this might hurt your heads....

The re-designed bayonnet would need a differential heat treat so that there was edge retention, and the flexibility/toughness/durability/bend in the body of the blade:thumbsup:... a smooth austensite/martensite transition is going to be essential or a layered laminate transition for edge to body:-/.... it's the heat treat that's going to be the bear on it.... the basic design still needs to be a modified spear point with a short sharpened edge on top and a full sharpened edge on the bottom - so the there would have to be a "C" shaped heat treat at the "stabby end" of the design - hmmm...... a bayonnet that actually stays sharp enough to use, and isn't brittle ..... differentially heat treated Powdered metal or a well done multilayer laminate of powdered and nominals to get the edge and the light tool/spring for the body.....

Gary... this could be doable.... not cheap but doable.... for an outstanding addition for Infantrymen... I've seen your stuff... but 'tiny', 'doc', 'gun bunny' and the 'mad african' might have to be asked some questions..... at least by me.

I see where you're going with the differential heat treatment the problem is, it is almost impossible to diff H/T stainless. As you said you COULD go with a laminate of some sort but you'd be either looking at crazy mass production to keep price down or we are talking a $1000.00 PLUS knife. Mass productions is the antithesis of the direction I want to go in. Honestly, I think we could get what we are looking for out of some of the particle steels. Some of these are EXTREMELY tough. I think the way to go is start out with around 5/16" stock, I agree with the spear point but keep everything fairly beefy, We can get a good heat treat that keeps us around 57-58 HRc. This is full point to two points than the Yarborough which is 55-57 Rc and you know how sharp that knife still stays. I think you have to go with the stainless for ease of maintenance and a knife done in ELMAX, S35VN, or even VANAX 35 properly heat treated and 5/16" thick will damn near impossible to break! I mean seriously, if you break it you were doing some crazy shit. So in the end you have a extreme corrosion resistance, you have a knife with unheard of edge retention, AND it will withstand 1000's of pounds of lateral force! I think we could deliver all that for as cheap or cheaper than the SENTRY REMOVAL SAW that looks exactly like the Yarborough and "is currently being adapted to or by or whatever by Special Forces" (WTF that means)!
Jesus Pardus, youre keeping my dance card full. I have to remake the Smatchet AND Bayonet!!
 
Personally I am a fan of the old M7 bayonet (just wish it fit on an M4); I think that keeping a dagger type point, with a thin blade is the way to go. There are many types of bayonet designs out there already; I think the key is KISS, with more of focus on light weight and durability. Having a wire cutter, saw serration and sheath that weighs as much as the bayonet is not the way I would go with it. I am not really sure it needs to have a real handle on it to be honest. Trying to dual role a field knife into a bayonet or vice versa, is just going to drive the cost up to a point where you’re going to lose a market base due to cost. I would go the other rout and build something incredibly light weight, hard as it can be, with the total design based around thrusting and slashing.

7” long, 1” wide, 3/16” thick, maybe some cutting serrations down one side, dual sharpened dagger point and a good hardy spine.

I absolutely agree with most of what youre saying, but think we can effectively pull off a good field knife that has the ability to attach to your rifle. I think expecting from or adding anything else to it and you start losing the simplicity of what we need and it's practicality. It doesnt need to be Swiss Army Knife that bolts on to a barrel. It needs to be a knife that can be used as a spear which are the two oldest tools in my cave! I mean troll was making both even BEFORE he secured the patent on the wheel! ;)
 
I absolutely agree with most of what youre saying, but think we can effectively pull off a good field knife that has the ability to attach to your rifle. I think expecting from or adding anything else to it and you start losing the simplicity of what we need and it's practicality. It doesnt need to be Swiss Army Knife that bolts on to a barrel. It needs to be a knife that can be used as a spear which are the two oldest tools in my cave! I mean troll was making both even BEFORE he secured the patent on the wheel! ;)

See and thats why you are the knife maker and I am the knife breaker...;)
 
Personally I am a fan of the old M7 bayonet (just wish it fit on an M4);

There are much better bayonets out there than the M7, it will break far too easily with a little lateral pressure.
The Brit L1A1 bayonet is a great little short bayonet, much thicker than the M7.

As I stated earlier, the P1888 is the best bayonet Ive ever seen, 12" blade, and a thick solid blade that you won't break.
If I could get that bayonet to fit my M4 I'd be a happy chap!

At 12" you have enough length to use this bayonet as a short sword which is bloody awesome!
Bring it hadji! }:-)
 
There are much better bayonets out there than the M7, it will break far too easily with a little lateral pressure.
The Brit L1A1 bayonet is a great little short bayonet, much thicker than the M7.

As I stated earlier, the P1888 is the best bayonet Ive ever seen, 12" blade, and a thick solid blade that you won't break.
If I could get that bayonet to fit my M4 I'd be a happy chap!

At 12" you have enough length to use this bayonet as a short sword which is bloody awesome!
Bring it hadji! }:-)

Yeah I have only used the M7 and the M9 bayonet thus far, the M7 stabs alot better then the M9. Never broke my M7 still have it, but I really never put a lot of lateral pressure on it either. What I really like about the M7 was that it was super light weight, did not take up a bunch of room on my kit and went through rubber tires like butter (so I figured it should do the same for Hadji). But I never got to carry it while deployed, had to carry the M9 bayonet due to the M4 issue..
 
If it matters to anyone, the soon to be Mr Melton is good to go in my book. He's managed to land a hot wife, and his kids are adorable and well minded. Of course, we'll see what happens when they reach the teenage part of life. I'm sure the boyz will be properly trained to repel all potential boyfriends of their sisters... :D

LL
Yeah.. She's pretty amazing. I dont know what she see's in me but I am glad she stays around! My life is full of wonderful things that I dont deserve. I think God feels sorry for me or somthing;) He's always squaring me away!
 
Ok.. I was able to knock out the heat treat. Here you can see we used 2200 degree foil and then pulled it out of the oven after a 30 min soak at 1950. From there we throw it onto the quench plates then shoot air in around the edges, rapidly cooling and hardening the steel. Within about a min it’s cool enough to touch.
Foil.JPG Quench Plate.JPG
Once it’s cooled down and removed from the foil, I clean the entire blade again with acetone and check for warping that may have occurred. From there we put the knife at the bottom of the styrofoam cooler then pour liquid nitrogen over the top. We'll keep the blade in here at -300 F for approx 8 hrs.
Knife in Cooler.JPG Nitrogen Poured.JPG 8 hr soak.JPG
MOST IMPORTANT: when getting ready to pour the liquid nitrogen you'll be standing there with all your protective gear on, gloves, apron, face shield looking like a mad scientist. As the nitrogen starts to come out and is billowing smoke everywhere you MUST, I say again, MUST laugh maniacally!! If you dont well.... you will be doomed!
 
...MOST IMPORTANT: when getting ready to pour the liquid nitrogen you'll be standing there with all your protective gear on, gloves, apron, face shield looking like a mad scientist. As the nitrogen starts to come out and is billowing smoke everywhere you MUST, I say again, MUST laugh maniacally!! If you dont well.... you will be doomed!

it's even better when Eye-Gore walks up and laughs with you....

...and since when is laughing maniacally reserved for you pouring nitrogen... the grill causes it, the grinder, the kydex forming, hell just waking into the shop and you sound like a bad horror-monster-movie-flick...
 
There are much better bayonets out there than the M7, it will break far too easily with a little lateral pressure.
The Brit L1A1 bayonet is a great little short bayonet, much thicker than the M7.

As I stated earlier, the P1888 is the best bayonet Ive ever seen, 12" blade, and a thick solid blade that you won't break.
If I could get that bayonet to fit my M4 I'd be a happy chap!

At 12" you have enough length to use this bayonet as a short sword which is bloody awesome!
Bring it hadji! }:-)

Yep; I remember doing bayonnette training at ROTC advanced camp. I saw at least four bayonnettes snap off during training, I resolved right then and there that if it ever came time for hand to hand, I would go with an e-tool or using my M-16 as a club. Was not impressed with our issue bayonnette.
 
The E tool is an excellent weapon.

I had this DS in OSUT (SFC Thomas) he was 10th Mountain veteran and was part of the group that pulled TF Ranger out of Mogadishu, he had 3 kills with an E tool (said they ran out of ammo quick and resorted to smashing and breaking). He was the talk of Sand Hill around that time frame; he would give the in processing speech down at 30th AG always intro’ed by another DS “this is SFC Thomas, he has 3 enemy kills with a shovel” then Thomas would give the speech while twirling an E tool. LOL dude looked crazy as shit…
 
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