To most, this is going to be a real yawn fest.  But, if you're a detail nerd like me, you might enjoy it.  I received a small parcel from France today containing some NOS nylon knobs with their fastening pins for the MAS 49/49-56 rifles and it got me to pondering.  You'd think something as simple as a synthetic cocking knob that slips over a steel charging handle to give you a better grip would be a no brainer thing.  Design something simple, test it to make sure the design is sound and BLAMMO, you're good to go for the life of the design's service life.  Yeah, welllll, they're French.  Besides, when you think about it, the changes, most of them anyway, do make sense.  Lets take a look.  Now, for the most part, my thoughts below are not based on any "official" documents I've encountered, but rather observations made over time and experience so, take them for what you will.  Also, the way I'm presenting them is also a bit convoluted but should be clear enough so that a careful reader will be able to follow along just fine.  In other words, don't just look at the pictures Francis; read the words too!  



When the MAS 44 was introduced, polymers were really still a pretty new thing if you think about it.  Installing a plastic knob over a steel handle made sense.  It enlarges the grasping surface enabling a better purchase by the user for a more robust charging of the rifle while also saving steel, fabrication time, and weight.  It was also more durable than a wooden knob which may easily crack.  Well, it turns out that the plastic used, shrinks over time and becomes brittle.  Eventually, with enough time and use, those knobs cracked and fell to pieces.  To the left in the picture below, you see a severely cracked MAS 44 knob (ignore the other knob for now):



I don't even pull back on this knob unless I've removed the receiver cover and recoil spring for fear of it shattering in my hand.  



It appears there were other problems too.  Use the following picture as a reference when reading the text following it:



As far as I can tell, the MAS 44 knobs were not molded.  Instead, they seem to have taken a long plastic rod and knurled it along its entire length.  Then, it was cut up into cocking knob sized pieces.  Next, each knob was drilled to accommodate the steel charging handle on the bolt carrier.  A further hole was drilled across its axis for the affixing pin and then, finally, to each outside face of that pin hole was added a larger diameter blind hole.  To affix the knob to the bolt carrier, the knob was placed over the charging handle and rotated until the pin hole in the knob aligned with the one on the carrier. Next, a rondel was placed into both blind holes and the affixing pin pushed into position until it was flush with both sides of the cocking knob.  Finally, a pointed punch was placed on either side of the affixing pin (most likely by a machine dedicated to this purpose) and pressure was applied, expanding the diameter of the affixing pin and locking it to the rondels, thus locking everything together into a solid unit on the bolt carrier.  Notice two pictures above, the divot in the affixing pin from it being squeezed. Is that complicated enough for you for a knob that ends up cracking to pieces??  Back to the drawing board.....



Next, they came up with a nylon knob that was attached in the same way as the plastic knob.  This was used on the MAS 49.  Like the MAS 44 knob, it was knurled but it was larger.  However, each knob was now molded, reducing necessary machining to boring the charging handle hole, the affixing pin hole and the two rondel recesses.   Changing the material seems to have done the trick as I have a MAS 49 dating from 1953 with its original knob still in place and, other than the knurling wearing down some from use, it appears to be still going strong (this time, ignore the knob on the left)  

?

So, the polymer problem was solved.  The next challenge was to simplify the outlandishly crazy affixing method.



The next knob was the one used on the MAS 49-56.  It was nylon and it was knurled as before, but it's a finer knurling.  They were also molded individually and the charging handle and affixing pin holes needed to be bored but they eliminated the rondels and went with a smaller pin, not a roll pin, but a solid pin driven in.  This pin was then, as before squeezed on either end creating a divot that is often mistaken for the end of a roll pin.

In both the first edition and the 1974 2nd edition of the parts catalog for the 49-56, knurled knobs are illustrated and only one part number is used, telling me that the knurled knob was the only knob used while the rifle was still being manufactured.





?







MAS 49 and 49-56 knurling compared:







I have just a few more pictures and thoughts to finish up in the next post.

The last knobs we need to consider are the ribbed jobbers we seem to almost always find on refurbished rifles, both MAS 49's and 49-56's.  A black one is pictured below compared to a knurled 49-56 example but they also came in the off white :


Why did they make these?  Well, i think part of it was because they finally figured out how to include the hole for the charging handle as part of the molding process.  I received five knobs in my latest package of French goodies, three white knurled and two black ribbed.  All three of the white ones had the charging handle hole drilled but it was molded into the two black ones and there was a manufacturers mark molded in at the bottom of the hole.  Perhaps when they were making the molds for the last evolution of the charging handle knob, they eliminated the knurling and replaced it with ribbing as either a cost saving measure or because it was believed that the longitudinal ribs gave the user a better grip.

I received five NOS pins with the knobs.  I'm not going to open them to illustrate it, but each pin is counterbored at either end so that they will expand when the affixing jig is attached and pressure applied:



Here, we see the where the walls of the counterbored pin have been expanded into the countersunk bevels of the knobs on a rearsenaled MAS 49 and a rearsenaled 59-56:



My belief is that this last knob variant (both black and white) came along well after rifle production had ended and they were only ever used as replacement parts.  Why are there both black and white versions of the last knob?  I have no idea but I think the white one predates the black one because so few black examples are seen relative to the white.


That's all I have for now but, if you cared enough to even make it this far, I'd love to hear your thoughts.  As I said at the beginning, most of this is just my observations.  Discussion is how we learn!

As far as I can tell, the black knobs came out in the 70's.

Neat esoteric dive. I'll have to look at the knobs on my -49 and 3x -49-56s.

Thank you for your post sir!  Over the years, some have said that the black knobs are aftermarket.  After comparing the manufacturer markings on them to those actually mounted on a couple of my rifles during the refurbishment process, I can say with certainty that the black knobs are government procured replacement parts.

If your rifle has the white ribbed knobs, you can light them up with a small flashlight (they glow nicely because they are so translucent).  Then you can use a loupe or strong magnifying glass to read the markings at the bottom of the charging handle hole.  I almost guarantee you that it will be marked, most likely "B.C".

Didn't even think to check for markings on the knob. Thanks for the hint.

I am in agreement that the black knobs are government arsenal-produced and not aftermarket.

I have a couple of the black ones I bought for spares. I need to take a better look at them.