A rough overview of the 1907 bayonet by country of manufacture, the links in the header will take you to pages dedicated to each maker with illustrative photographs
Production of the first 1907’s began in April 1908, with the quillioned variant. In 1913 the quillion was officially removed from future production but there was no change in the designation of the bayonet.
The practice bayonet was approved in 1914 and obtained by removing a ¼” from the tip of the blade re shaping to give a rounded “point”, additionally the letters DP were stamped into the pommel end to show Drill Purpose. These should not be confused with DP marked blades where the DP is marked on the cross guard or the side of the pommel, these are more likely to represent weapons issued to the Delhi Police. The lack of wear, the grinding of a false edge, the blueing and the existence of RFI made blades with DP markings all substantiate this surmise.
In 1916 the pommel clearance hole was introduced. Finish changes are covered in the separate section on blade finishes.
1920 saw a UK requirement that all blades were to be maintained in a sharpened condition by the armourers, this sharpening to start approximately 2”(50mm) from the cross guard and extend to the point maintaining the existing edge angle. It should be noted that many blades would have been sharpened by the troops that they were issued to, if not by the armourer
There is no mention of a UK introduction of a false edge to UK blades and it is more likely that these are in fact Indian or Australian reworks (probably the former) despite the UK markings found on them
In the early 20’s there was renewed interest in the Farquhar automatic rifle (first tested in 191, the bayonet trialed for this rifle was a cut down 1907 pattern bayonet, with a specially shortened scabbard.
During WWII Skennerton reports that a shortened 1907 was produced but offers no more information than this. I would expect there to be several fighting knife conversions of the 1907 made during both the first and second world wars (and other actions) by troops either themselves or by the local armouries, these would not be officially sanctioned.
I have included the US made Remington 1907's in with the UK in this section as the blades were made for the UK and not for US use.
The first 1907 production was of the quillioned model Pattern 1907 bayonet, and production of this continued for longer than in the UK. The MkII going into production in around 1915 as the Lithgow Pattern 1907 bayonet, earlier blades going through refurbishemnt had their quillions removed.
It was 1922 before the pommel clearance hole was introduced in Australian production, although it could be applied retroactively to earlier made blades during refurbishment/repair.
In 1938 shot blasting instead of sand blasting was approved, the sand blasting would give a much “rougher” or “sharper” finish than the shot. In 1942 bonderising was added to the acceptable blade finishes.
In 42/43 a change in the grinding of the blades was introduced, with the approval of the sharpening of the true edge, this was an “officialisation” of the grinding often carried out by the troops themselves. Refurbished blades will also show this treatment.
1944 saw the introduction of a false edge along the back of the blade in order that the blade could be used as a fighting knife in emergency (a very long fighting knife!).
While the UK produced the No5 bayonet to use with the shortened No 4 rifle designed for jungle use, in Australia they trialed modified 1907’s with an enlarged Muzzle rings to compensate for the flash hider on the rifle. Three different blade lengths were tested; 6”,10” and 12”, using cut down blades with the original markings left intact.
The Owen bayonet prototype was first made from cut down 1907 pattern bayonets in the same way that the trials No6 had been, these can be easily identified as the fullers extend fight through to the end of the blade. The production Owen bayonets were made with a specially made short blade based on the 1907 and the fullers are fully contained on the blade. Production of the Owen continued up until the mid 50’s at Lithgow.
Although they only started production of the 1907 in 1911, the Indians were the largest producer of approved variations on the 1907 bayonet with 11 officially designated variants. They also were issued UK and possibly Australian produced bayonets, and carried out reworks of these bayonets for their own use
Non of the texts that I have and have used in researching the 1907 pattern bayonet made any reference to South African production of this bayonet. Skennerton in his book British and Commonwealth Bayonets does reference a AECO made variation of the 1913 bayonet, but not to any 1907 versions.
Although they did not make a 1907 as such, they did use the blade style to produce their own bayonet known as the 1920, there are reports that 1907 pattern blades were also used to produce these bayonets. These blades are actually for a Mauser type rifle.
There are several 1907 style bayonets for which no maker or user is known, as there are no identifiable makers or users markings.