A spike

bayonet A bayonet (from Old French , now spelt ) is a -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , now spelt ) is a knife, dagger">knife">-4; we might wonder whethe ...

, also commonly known as a socket bayonet, or a ''pigsticker'' in informal contexts, is a blade attachment for a firearm taking the form of a pointed spike rather than a

knife A knife (: knives; from Old Norse 'knife, dirk') is a tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade, usually attached to a handle or hilt. One of the earliest tools used by humanity, knives appeared at least Stone Age, 2.5 million years ago, as e ...

Description

Most early

musket A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually dis ...

bayonets were of this type. Beginning in the early 19th century, knife and/or sword bayonets began to appear, which could also be wielded by hand. In the early to mid-20th century, spike bayonets reappeared, often folding or stowed under the barrel for compactness, such as on the French Lebel M1886 and MAS-36, Russian SKS and Mosin-Nagant, German

FG 42 The FG 42 (German language, German: ''Fallschirmjägergewehr'' 42, "paratrooper rifle 42") is a selective fire, selective-fire 7.92×57mm Mauser automatic rifle produced in Nazi Germany during World War II. The weapon was developed specifically ...

, and British

Lee–Enfield The Lee–Enfield is a bolt-action, magazine-fed repeating rifle that served as the main firearm of the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century, and was the standard service rifle of th ...

. The Lee-Enfield Rifle No.4 bayonet, took the form of a short spike (but fixed conventionally), and was unpopular due to its length and lack of utility. Spike bayonets have not been popular with

armies An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

since the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, with the exception of China, which attached them to its

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is an assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kala ...

rifle and SKS carbine variants ( Type 56 and Type 63).

References

External links

World Bayonets
Spike bayonet 18th-century weapons Victorian-era weapons World War I infantry weapons World War II infantry weapons {{Knife-stub