British Lee-Enfield No. 9 Knife Bayonet

Single-fullered bowie blade with clipped point, steel socket with locking mechanism. Steel scabbard with circular frog stud and brass throat piece secured by a screw. Khaki canvas postwar frog with unstitched slit for the stud.

The No. 9 was the last model of bayonet produced for the Lee Enfield No.4 rifle, and followed the No. 7 rotating bayonet with a mechanically simpler attempt at a bayonet that was also useful as a knife, using the No. 7’s blade and scabbard but attached to the simple forged socket of the wartime No. 4.

The locking button is stamped with a broad arrow. The socket is stamped on one side with ‘F5’ over ‘B’. The reverse side of the frog’s belt loop is inked with markings, but these are so faint as to be illegible.

The blade has some spots of patination and of cleaned pitting, including pitting at the tip on one side. Its edge has been sharpened. The bluing of the socket is intact apart from rubbing at raised edges, and the band of bluing remains at the base of the blade. The scabbard has two small dents and one larger dent on the reverse side, its bluing is likewise rubbed in places.