Antique, 18th century, Italian Plug Bayonet Dagger Knife. Steel blade, bronze and bone handle

Antique, 18th century, Italian Plug Bayonet Dagger Knife. Steel blade, bronze and bone handle

Italy , ca. 1750s

Size: 27 cm

This is a long dagger that could be placed in the barrel of a musket and used as a bayonet. They are called "plug bayonets" .

The late 17th century saw the final demise of the pike, and its replacement by the bayonet. The plug bayonet, which blocked the muzzle of the musket and needed to be removed for firing, did not catch on. The earliest military use of bayonets was by the French Army in 1647, at Ypres. These were plug-fitted into the barrel. That prevented firing once they were mounted, but allowed musketeers to act as their own pikemen, which gave infantry formations greater firepower. By 1650 some muskets had bayonets fixed to the gun at manufacture, hinged and foldable back along the barrel. French fusiliers adopted the plug bayonet as standard equipment in 1671; English fusiliers followed suit in 1685.

This system worked pretty well, but it obviously cut down the army’s firepower-sometimes by more than half. The solution to the problem was to turn the musket into a spear.