Type 30 Japanese Bayonet

[1srelluc]

I found this Jap. Type 30 straight quillon bayonet in decent shape today.....Likely made around 1943 by Toyoda Jidoshoki Seisakusho (Toyoda Automatic Loom Works) under Nagoya supervision.

Toyoda Automatic Loom Works/Nagoya mark.

IMHO no Jap. rifle is complete without a bayonet.

 

[odanny]

See if you can find a knee mortar.

 

[1srelluc]

See if you can find a knee mortar.

View attachment 1041572

LOL....A local shop had one for sale but it was not demilled.....The ATF confiscated it!

 

[AZrailwhale]

See if you can find a knee mortar.

View attachment 1041572

When I was EOD in San Francisco back in 1971 a woman walked in off the street with one in mint condition plus a dozen live rounds. Her Grandfather brought it back from WWI and she found it in his stuff after he died. It was a good thing she brought it in because the rounds used Picric Acid and had reacted with the shell casings making VERY sensitive explosive crystals. We blew one up trying to remove the fuse after letting it sit in an acetone bath for a week. We let the rest sit for a month and were able to remove the fuses and dissolve the explosives in another acetone bath. We donated the weapon and rounds because they were in such good condition. I think they are in the collection at either Aberdeen or the Smithsonian.

 

[odanny]

That's interesting, I used to use picric acid at work but eventually they removed all of it because the nozzles on spray bottles and those surfaces near outside air can form crystals, and as you said those crystals are what is explosive. I thought it overkill by my employer as we generally always stored them in a fireproof cabinet but there was another facility where a big fire happened because of this acid so it all had to go. In WWI, soldiers would scoop it out of spent artillery shells and eat the residue and then claim they had jaundice to get off the front lines.

Aberdeen has an amazing museum, I've wanted to go back ever since last visit, back around 2003. I think they are moving all the armor somewhere else, not sure about the rest.