The M3 fighting knife blade was used in the M1 Carbine bayonet M4, the US M1 Garand rifle, M5 bayonet, The M14 rifle, M6 bayonet and The M16 rifle, M7 bayonet.

This is one of the easiest knives to identify because of its bolo blade shape. These are heavy knives designed for clearing brush for field medical stations. USMC probably stands for U.S. Medical Corps. The handles were made of walnut or poplar and held on with brass slide together rivets. If you must replace the handle, try to salvage the rivets. Use penetrating oil, tapping and twisting to seperate the rivets. They will come apart. Then they can be reused on the new handle.

The M3 fighting knife was designed to go with the M1 carbine. The carbine was supposed to replace the all of the service pistols of the time. US military policy is for each soldier to have a firearm and an edged weapon. A bayonet will be issued with your rifle and a knife with your pistol. Thus, if you were issued a M1 carbine you got a M3 knife to go with it. One of Cole's early books gos into this a bit. ( ask for Cole's 1960 book, Metro Books, Box 711, Litchfield Pk. AZ 85340.

The M3 is a nice fighting knife and fairly rare because, it was decided that the M1 carbine should have a bayonet. So production of the M3 knife stopped and the blades were used to make M4 bayonets for the M1A1 Carbine. Blades made for M4 bayonets are not marked "M3". A prized collectible is a M4 bayonet with a M3 blade. Reference; "The M1 Carbine Book", rarebook.abcmgmt.biz.



Last edited by Bob on Mon Jul 18, 2011 11:37 pm; edited 1 time in total

The M5 bayonet was designed for the US M1 rifle. This bayonet used the M3 blade you talk about above. Using the M3 blade produced a cheaper bayonet for the M1 rifle. Up till then the M1 Rifle had used some form of the Springfield Rifle bayonet ( call them M1 bayonets but thats a whole different story). The M5 is unique as bayonets go in that instead of a muzzle ring it uses a peg stuck into the rifle gas port plug to hold it on. They were issued with the BM Co. plastic scabbard M8A1 and plastic grips. Several of the M5s in my collection have the usual plastic grips but the diamond pattern is larger then that used on the M4s and M6s I have examined.

The M5 fighting knife has the peg sawed off, spring hardware removed, wooden grips and a leather scabbard marked "M5". The metal at the top, rear is ground off. The M5 fighting knife may not be a US military modification, but there is a photo seemingly showing a WW2 soldier carrying one. I have one in my collection, the grip looks like oak. I don't think oak was ever used by the US military for knife or bayonet grips.

The M1 bayonet fighting knife , sometimes called PAL, has similar questionable linage. Also a photo. The two PALs in my collection have no markings, walnut grips and cook leather scabbards with no markings.

Source: "Cole's US Military Fighting knives" out of print . My collection and my questionable memory.

There are several books at rarebook.abcmgmt.biz . "The M4 bayonet book" is a good one. I don't know the price, about $8. They will send a catalog if you ask em.

The M3 in my collection has leather grips with 8 groves. It is guard marked US M-3 UTICA. The scabbard is the correct USM8 green plastic and web with no web belt hanger. It slides over the US pistol web belt. The scabbard was made by BM CO. It has "GARRETT" painted in large yellow letters on the back. I (bragging) got them at a Phoenix AZ estate sale for $15.00. In 2001. Our local knife store had one priced at $175.00.

Some M3s had the leather handles replaced with plastic. Some M4's have leather M3 handles.
I have an M4 bayonet with wooden handles. Wood may have been a field modification. It has the USM8 scabbard but also has the hanger. There was some mixing of parts with the change from M3 to M4. This makes them interesting to collect.

Rarebook is the usual source I give for knife books.

The Bolos used different woods because Walnut was in demand for rifle stocks. The handles held up well.