FIX BAYONETS!
The newsletter of American Jukenjutsu - The Bayonet Society
In This Issue
Supplier Changes
New Sources
Bayonet Fencing Rules

Quick Links

Issue Number 1

March/2011

Supplier Changes 

We have updated our Equipment Suppliers page on the Website with new links for  two suppliers, Bokkenshop.Com (for jukens) and Chiba Budogu Ltd. (for Bogu).  Both have made changes in where jukendo equipment is listed on their site.

   

Purpleheart Armory at one point did offer longer bayonet training rifles than the M-16 model used by the United States military.  However, these are gone from their site, but the 46 inch training rifle is still listed in both their western and eastern lists of equipment.

 New Sources

Three new books have recently passed across our desk that may be of use to bayonet practitioners: 

 

Paul Kiesling's Bayonets of the World: The Comprehensive Edition has been published in a revised edition by SI Publicaties BV of the Netherlands, available from Amazon. With 670 pages and 1000 plus illustrations, this is catalog of 1071 bayonets. From the standpoint of the student of bayonet fencing, the detailed information on length of each model included is important to the construction of adequate simulators for training. And, if you like bayonets, it is just a great browsing book.
  
Robert W. Shuey's Socket Bayonets of the Great Powers: A Collectors Guide - a thorough pictorial guide to socket bayonets from the United States, Austria, Belgium, Great Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The book is limited, unfortunately, by the lack of one key bit of information important to understanding the combat employment (and simulation) of these weapons - there is no data on the length of the bayonets pictured.

Lieutenant Colonel (Provisional Army of Virginia) R. Milton Cary's Skirmishers' Drill and Bayonet Exercise of 1861, published as a facsimile edition. This is a translation of the French Army bayonet technique, originally intended for light infantry (chasseurs-a-pied as opposed to line regiments or grenadiers). It was published for the use of the volunteer and elite militia units of the Southern states at the start of the war of 1861-1865.  

Bayonet Fencing Rules 

We have been working on rules for bayonet fencing as a competitive activity.  Bayonet fencing procedures were included in bayonet manuals by the 1860s and detailed rules evolved and were used in competitions from the early 1900s through the 1950s.  Our effort is a revision of these to include modern concerns about safety and to include currently available equipment.

 

Members will receive a draft copy in the next week - please review them for clarity and to ensure they provide for a competition that is in keeping with the spirit of the bayonet.

American Jukenjutsu - The Bayonet Society is an organization dedicated to the study of the bayonet and its use as both a training and a combat weapon.  We disseminate information about bayonets and bayonet fighting and fencing through our website, our blog, and this newsletter.