Patriot Ordnance Factory Inc. (POF-USA), in partnership with Patriot Tactical LLC and Goldberg's Garage, released the Goldberg Blade, a limited-edition folding knife featuring custom CGC Cerakote artwork and designed as a companion to POF-USA's Rogue Jackhammer Signature Series rifle. Limited to 300 units with an MSRP of $300.
There’s a bit of a cult following for AR builds that clone the service rifle from the video game Fallout New Vegas. While the parts are available to make a pretty nice rifle, the game bayonet remains elusive. Let's look at how you can make a stand-in, at least until I can convince some company to start making these for real. And trust me, I've been trying.
Fallout New Vegas Service Rifle
If you aren't familiar with the service rifle from Fallout New Vegas, it's loosely an M16A1 with wood furniture. When you break the parts down further, it's closest to a 20-inch pencil barrel with a solid A2-shaped muzzle device mounted on a C7-type upper.
The C7 is the A1-style upper with a brass deflector block. The lower is a slabside lower. The game rendering uses a side charging handle and an ejection port that flips up, rather than down. The last two things don't translate well to real AR parts, but otherwise you can get pretty close.
My gun is built on a Bad Attitude Department lower with proper Fallout service rifle markings. It's an A2 lower and not a slabside, but I wanted the markings more than I wanted a slabside that said something else. I'm cloning a gun that doesn't actually exist after all, so I'm not as picky as I might be with a historical clone. BAD does A1 lowers in this style now, so those would be a little closer.
I used a C7 upper I'd picked up off the old Gun Accessories For Sale Reddit, and a Brownells 20-inch pencil barrel. Then I added a chrome BCG and polished trigger to mimic the highlights of the game gun. For the stocks I used American Icon battle worn walnut, which I covered here on SNW at the time. I also covered the initial build here as part of a retro build round up article.
At first I just used an A2 flash hider, but around Christmas time American Icon released a game clone appropriate muzzle device. Like the game render, it's sort of an A2 profile with no slots. For practical purposes it's not a flash hider or a muzzle brake. Not really a flash can either. Just a muzzle device for looks, although I guess it does protect the crown of the barrel. For the game gun it's the perfect look, but probably not something you'd put on other builds.
Fallout nerds quibble over details and whose FNV service rifle is the most correct, but overall I'm pretty happy with my build.
Now You Need a Bayonet
If you have a good service rifle build, then you need a good bayonet. This is actually trickier than building the rifle. The in game bayonet is kind of a cross between a KA-BAR and an M9 bayonet. It has a stacked leather handle like a KA-BAR and something of a clip point blade. It looks more like an M9 blade without the wire cutter hole or saw serrations to me than a KA-BAR blade but it isn't really either of those. Nothing like that really exists at the moment.
I have an old Sarco bayonet that I use with mine that has the right vibe. It's a copy that Sarco made in the 90's of an experimental Army bayonet from the 70's. It uses a Marine Utility Knife (read KA-BAR) style blade and stacked leather handle with an M7 guard and pommel latch.
Sarco actually built them with surplus parts. Any time I post it I get a ton of questions on it, and invariably some offers to buy it. I like it. It's not for sale. They do pop up on Ebay off an on, but have been going northwards of $300 in most auctions. Which is crazy for a knife that's a civilian clone of a knife that was only tested in small numbers and never adopted for service. They sold for $40 originally. Still, if you want a Fallout bayonet, these are about as close as you come.
So I Made My Own
Even though I do have that Sarco, I wanted to see if there were any more affordable alternatives available. With stacked leather handles, the answer is no, there are not. Now, there are some great Fallout inspired rifle builds that use Fakelite furniture, like the ones from Cheating Death Customs. I reviewed a set of their Fakelite stocks here on SNW a while back.
Although they've switched to only providing the stocks on finished guns rather than selling sets separately, other than maybe a couple drops of limited batches here and there throughout the year if they have time. Now, I don't do Fakelite as well as they do, but I have done a fair bit of it on projects of my own. I decided that in lieu of a stacked leather handle, a Fakelite one would give a similar retro vibe.
For a donor bayonet I narrowed it to two choices: an M9 or a SOG BAR15 with clip point blade. Real M9's are kind of expensive too, although there are some knock offs you can find for around $50. A lot have aggressive saw teeth on them though, which isn't the right look.
The SOG BAR15 is pretty darn close though, so I went with that. MSRP is $80, still a lot better than a Sarco on Ebay, if you can find one. Amazon has them for about $65 so that's better yet. I had one on hand already as I'd gotten it last year and wrote it up for Knife Wire (which is free, and you should subscribe to if you like knives).
The SOG is pretty nicely made, and in this case a little too nice. I needed a worn wasteland look for my service rifle bayonet so I set about aging it. I tried stripping the black blade finish off with Citistrip, which I've used to strip knife finishes before with goods success. The SOG scoffed at it. Even with multiple coats it had absolutely no affect on the the blade finish. I tried paint stripper as well, but nothing. I ended up giving the blade to my brother in law and had him sand blast the finish off the knife. He did so, but left a little bit of the logo worn, but still showing. Not game correct, but we both thought it looked good that way.
Once the blade was stripped I planned on putting a forced patina on it. I used white vinegar, which is again something I've used for years to add patina to knives. Even with the blade finish removed it did nothing. The BAR15 is made from D2 tool steel. It has a high chromium level to it, and while not technically stainless, it is considered "near stainless." After that I tried cold blueing but with minimal affect. I got the blade to look slightly worn, but it didn't really take either finish. The carbon steel pommel and bayonet latch took a little bit of a patina to them though.
I had taken the handles off before I started working on the blade. Cautionary note: the handle screws strip out kind of easily and the screws are unobtainium. SOG doesn't have spares, and the one place I found on Ebay that had the right type took my money and lied about about them being delivered. Thanks for the help on that Ebay... So be careful if you take yours off. I ended up stealing a screw from my other SOG bayonet for now, and hope I find something to replace it with later. As far as refinishing the handles themselves, I followed the Fakelite recipe I linked to earlier and painted and textured them. Once dry, I hit them with a matte clear coat and reassembled everything.
The Final Product
I'm not hating how the final product turned out. I think the blade shape is right on for the Fallout service rifle Bayonet. While stacked leather would be best, the Fakelite has the right retro vibe I think. I'd have liked to get more of a patina on the blade than I did, but I still don't think it looks bad. Total investment for the bayonet, plus paint was under $80. You could probably knock that down to about $60 if you used one of the M9 knockoffs. Although I do think the SOG has a closer look in blade shape. A bonus is that the SOG BAR15C makes a pretty darn nice field knife too. It's still a fully functional as a bayonet as well, so even you game build cosplay gun can still have some real bite to it.
