This is a great example of one of the harder variants of the US Model 1816 style socket bayonets to find. The US Model 1819 Socket Bayonet for the Hall Rifle is essentially identical in shape and form to the US Model 1816/22/27 series of bayonets with a nominal 16” blade, face flute of varying length, T-shaped mortise, and a friction fit socket with no locking ring. The two major differences are the bore diameter of the socket, which is about .783 +/- for the Hall and about .830” for the Model 1816/22/27 and that the bridge of the socket for the Hall bayonet is elevated and cut with an offset recess to allow the offset front sight of the Hall rifle to pass into the bayonet socket. Typically, Hall Rifle bayonets are unmarked, although occasionally a marked blade is found. Some are marked with “US” over a pair of letters, which are either the maker or inspector, but these are extremely scarce. It is believed that these letter-marked bayonets were produced by contractors as one of the markings that is encountered is US/SN, which is attributed to Simeon North, the only contractor to produce Hall rifles. More often, if the face of the bayonet is marked it is simply with a single or double punch dot, or more rarely a sort of “windmill” or rudimentary Maltese Cross mark. It is believed that these bayonets with simple tool marks, as well as the ones bearing no marks, were probably manufactured at Harpers Ferry. As with the Model 1816 family of bayonets, the Hall Rifle bayonets are found with two distinct styles of blade point. The more common is known as a “prow point”, with the end of the blade being fairly blunt and resembling the prow, or bow, of a boat. The other type of point is a more tapered, sharper point. It has been postulated that all Hall Rifle bayonets were manufactured and finished “in the white”, with an arsenal bright, polished steel finish. This seems unlikely, as from time to time a rare example surfaces with original, period applied, arsenal lacquer brown finish. I think that a more realistic answer is that the bayonets for the Hall Rifle were finished in the brown during the “National Armory Brown” period, which lasted for the decade from 1822 until 1832. As production of the Model1819 Hall Rifle did not really being until 1823, with only about 20 rifles delivered that year, it seems logical that the early Harpers Ferry produced socket bayonets would be of the general type and finish currently being manufactured at Harpers Ferry. Only 2,000 Model 1819 Hall Rifles were produced at the Harpers Ferry Rifle works between 1823 and 1831, with 1000 officially “delivered” in 1824 and 1000 more officially delivered in 1827. Both of these deliveries took place during the National Armory Brown period. The next delivery of Hall Rifles from the Harpers Ferry Rifle works was in 1832, when 4,360 were produced. It was during 1832 that the browning of muskets and their accompanying bayonets was officially ended at both of the national arsenals, so I believe that the browning of the Hall bayonets ended at that time as well. Contractor Simeon North delivered only 600 Hall Rifles in 1830 and 800 in 1831. This makes the total delivery of Hall Rifles prior to 1832 only 3,400. This explains the rarity of the browned bayonets, when compared against the total production of Hall Rifles which was 25,380, counting those guns produced by both Harpers Ferry & Simeon North. Assuming that only those bayonets produced before 1832 were browned, only 13% of Hall bayonets would have received that finish. Even if half of the total 1832 production of bayonets was browned as well, prior to the process being discontinued, only 6,250 bayonets would have been browned, less than 25% of the total production of Hall Rifle Bayonets.

This very nice example of a US Model 1819 Hall Rifle Socket Bayonet is in about FINE condition. This is one of the standard bayonets that was polished to National Armory Bright. The ricasso of the blade is unmarked, which is typical of Hall socket bayonets. The bayonet has .784” socket bore diameter and is approximately 18 5/8” in overall length with a nominally 16” blade that measures 15 7/8” and a 2 7/8” long socket. The blade has a nominally 9” long face flute. The Hall bayonets were produced with two styles of blades; a prow-tip that is typical of most US M-1816/22/27 socket bayonets and a tapered tip that is sharper. This bayonet features the more common “prow pint tip”. While no definitive criteria have developed to allow the dating of Hall bayonets, it has been surmised that these tapered tip bayonets were either very early or very late production, as the prow tip would have been typical of standard Model 1816/22/27 bayonet production. The blade is almost entirely smooth, with only some very minor areas of lightly scattered pinpricking present, mostly along the underside of the blades in the rear flutes and a few lightly scattered tiny patches of light surface oxidation. The most obvious patches of discoloration are along the last few inches of the blade, near the tip. The socket remains perfectly round, and the T-shaped mortise remains crisp and sharp without any significant dings or mars around the front or rear of the socket to impede the mounting of the bayonet on a Hall rifle. The socket does show some scattered freckles of surface oxidation and discoloration. The bayonet is very crisp and sharp throughout, with only a handful of minor dings on the outside of the socket and along the edges of the bayonet blade, all typical of handling and use during the period.

Overall, this is a very crisp and nice condition example of a scarce US Model 1819 Hall Rifle Socket Bayonet. The bayonet is in a wonderful state of preservation and retains some of its original armory bright finish. If you have nice Hall Rifle, in flint or percussion, this would be a great addition to the display or your gun.