Original Item: Only One Available. This is fantastically rare. Weve only ever seen one before at The London Gun Show in the 1980s and the price at that time was $3,000! No doubt these were produced in some quantity originally but for whatever reason very few survived.
This wire cutter is designed to attach to the muzzle end of a Short Magazine Lee Enfield Rifle,
the S.M.L.E., by way of an integral clamp, on the right side. The two wide "jaws " stand vertically
to guide the barbed wire into the cutting edges. Once engaged, the Infantryman lowers the muzzle to the ground automatically closing the cutters and severs the wire. Quick and ingenious, this provided a great service in the WW1 trenches.
Marked:
DECIMALS LTD., SELLY OAK, No.I MARK III, 1917
Selly Oak is a suburb of Birmingham in England's Industrial Midlands.
Incredibly scarce, the first we have ever owned!
