US 1917 Remington Bayonet (WW I). It is marked "Remington" in a circle with "1918" above it. There is "US" , a number "4" and an ordnance grenade on the other side. It also appears that the British marks were crossed out. Remington Model 1917 Bayonet With a 1918 Date Marking Some otherwise standard Remington manufactured bayonets can be found dated 1918 instead of 1917. It is surmised that Remington changed the marking die in early 1918 to reflect the date of manufacture, as was standard on the Model 1905 bayonet. Apparently they were fairly quickly ordered to return to the 1917 marking, as the 1918 mark is fairly uncommon. I asked Jerry Janzen several years ago if he had found anything in the Remington records to officially document this, and he stated that he had not. In his book on Remington bayonets, he shows and mentions the 1918 mark but does not state any details. During WW One the USA helped Britain by manufacturing arms and equipment including this Remington manufactured bayonet Pattern 1913 to fit the British P-14 rifle. The two cuts on the wooden grips are to differentiate this bayonet from the similar looking Pattern 1907 as they are not interchangeable. The US 1917 Remington Bayonet has a very unique look with its double notched handle. The bayonet was patterned after the 1913 British bayonet and to make it stand out from the similar British Lithgow 1907 bayonet, two vertical notches were added to the handle. This makes it extremely easy to spot in a lineup of bayonets and probably also served as a way to easily recognize which bayonet went to which type of gun should there be a mix of weapons. When the United States entered WW I, they needed a bayonet to go along with their Remington Rifle, so the US adopted the British 1913 bayonet and changed the designation to become the 1917 Remington Bayonet. Two US companies were awarded contracts, which included Remington (Stamped with the text "Remington" inside a circle, where the text follows the circle) and Winchester (Stamped with a "W" inside a circle). When Remington was placing their markings on the bayonets in 1918, they stamped 1918 instead of 1917. Up until then, it was common to date a bayonet by the year of manufacture, like the US M1905 bayonet which was dated for each year it was manufactured, 1906 to 1922. When the Model 1917 bayonet was produced, the military wanted the date of 1917 to be the model number stamped, not the year of manufacture. Once the error was caught, they went back to dating the blades with the 1917 date. So Remington bayonets with the date 1918 are generally rarer because of the error and the change in how bayonets should be marked. Remington Bayonet Handles There are not a lot of markings to really have to learn about when looking over the Remington unlike the Japanese Type 30, where there are hundreds of variations. Knowing that Winchester 1917 Bayonets are rarer and as such are more valuable is helpful. Also know that Remington 1917 bayonets that are marked 1918 are also rarer.