N.S. Meyer blade quality or similar blades

[Dan D'Silva]

Hi there.

I found a seller on eBay who has some old N.S. Meyer stainless military blades. I was considering getting one for an Argentine facón as seen here in photos 2-4 and 6. Is anyone familiar with this maker and can tell me whether the steel and heat treatment are any good? (I would be cutting the blade down to no more than 20 inches.)

I would be open to any suggestions of another manufacturer, if blades from them are available.

Edit: Should add, I understand by the time military swords started to be made of stainless, they were generally relegated to dress wear and not expected to function as swords. I figure with a decent alloy and heat treatment it should function as a knife if cut down to knife length, but facón length may be pushing it.

 

[horseclover]

Seems like a great opportunity. I have a Brazilian faca from an old bayonet or sword

 

[Dan D'Silva]

A sword bayonet would be a great starting point, insofar as it wouldn't require going through the effort of shortening the blade and would be more likely to be functional. OTOH all the readily available bayonet blades I've seen have full-profile tangs and the typical facón construction seems to require a hidden tang.

 

[horseclover]

A sword bayonet would be a great starting point, insofar as it wouldn't require going through the effort of shortening the blade and would be more likely to be functional. OTOH all the readily available bayonet blades I've seen have full-profile tangs and the typical facón construction seems to require a hidden tang.

A full tang can be ground down. I believe that might be the case with mine. The trippy part is that the bolster is thicker than the blade but integral with the blade. Ground down with perhaps a stick tang welded on but I think they could simply grind to suit, a lot of removal on a bayonet. If someone had used the point end of a sword, they would be doing the same thing. Stock removal.

Cheers
GC

addendum, I can no longer log into myArmoury due to site tech issues

 

[Dan D'Silva]

Oh, hi! Didn't know it was you. How's everything?

I could grind a flat tang into a hidden one as long as it's solid and the screw holes aren't too big; probably not less work than shortening a sword blade, though it would have the advantage of ugly minor imperfections being hidden once the hilt is assembled. One with a big slot in the middle, like an M1905/M1, would like you say need a new tang welded on -- I know a guy who could do it though obviously it bumps the price up.

The other idea that occurs to me is using the blade off a repro 1840 NCO or musician's sword; there's something attractive in the option of leaving it longer than a bayonet so it could be truly sword-length if I felt like.