THE BAYONET HOE

A well-used 1943 U. Fork & Hoe bayonet cut from sixteen inches down to ten.  One wonders of the tales it could tell were it able to speak. 

A quintessential example of beating swords into plowshares was promulgated in 1943 by the Union Fork and Hoe Company of Columbus, Ohio. 

From 1905 through 1942, the U.S. War Department required bayonets with a 16-inch blade for its primary battle rifles. However, due to the inconvenience of carrying the longer blades in aircraft and tanks, as well as the fact that  modern warfare no longer required, at least on a major scale, the need to have a bayonet long enough to go through the chest cavity of an enemy horse, the War Department specified a new length of only 10 inches. 

Companies who had been making the 16-inch bayonets, such as U. Fork and Hoe, were commissioned to shorten the blades on their existing stock of 16-inch bayonets, as well as the bayonets already in the government inventory, to 10 inches. In a synergistic flash of inspiration which combined patriotic marketing with recycling, U. Fork and Hoe converted the cut-off bayonet tips into blades for both individual hoes as well as larger farm implements.

For further information on variations of American WWII bayonets, including a copy of an ad for the U. Fork and Hoe bayonet hoe, please click here.

Many collectors of these World War II bayonets have learned to their chagrin that they must be very careful in their enunciation when uttering "U. Fork and Hoe" in the presence of their wives or girlfriends.