A Custom Bayonet?

I found a stainless steel, Chinese made Bayonet at a swap meet, it was missing the handle, but otherwise looked GTG.

I paid $3 for it and figured I could make a set of handles from wood. Then maybe wrap it in tactical black paracord..... like this one:

photo courtesy of AR15.com

Here is the Chinese Bayonet next to a military issue M7

Some may think bayonets may be from a by-gone era when hand to hand combat was still a reality of war, but I like 'em. 

One of the reasons I like them is because the Hoplophobes hate them....they may not even know why they hate them...(see my blog post "Something for the Hoplophobes"

Before starting the project I test fitted the bayonet on my 10-22....wouldn't you know it, it didn't fit....it figures. 
The Chinese person who made this probably was reading the wrong specs or the translation juxtaposed an 8 for a 6 or something.

You can see the hole is way too small for a mil-spec AR bird cage flash hider.
So the first step was to open the hole, I used a Craftsman 5/8 spark plug socket as my guide/gauge. It would slide in with a "slip fit" in my M-7 Bayonet. This way I wouldn't have to keep trying it on the gun.

I used a step drill, a die grinder, rat tail file and sand paper to open it up

test fit on the 10-22

I cut some pieces of this blond English Walnut that I paid $0.50 for at a gun show

I roughed up the surfaces and mixed up some JB Clear Weld epoxy and glued the first side on

For the bolts, I used these brass 1/8" bolts I got from a project at work. Rather than insert nuts, I will just epoxy them in place and cut the heads off.

 After the epoxy dried it was time to start making saw dust. Looking back I should have inlaid the handle to prevent the gap. I figured I would fill the gap with a wood/epoxy filler.

I cut the excess pieces of the brass bolts and started taking away the wood with the rasp. I saved the saw dust and shavings to fill the gap.
I plan on mimicking the profile of the M7 bayonet handle, it is fat in the middle and skinnier at the ends.

 I mixed the saw dust/shavings with the JB Clear Weld epoxy and filled the gap

A good couple of coats of Minwax spray Spar Urethane and the bayonet is finished...and less than $5 invested