Group photo of my WWII Pals

[Maddogfl]

I get a kick of being the temporary custodian of some of the blades of the Greatest Generation. The pic is a Grouping of four blades made by the PAL company for service men. PAL bought the knife works from Remington shortly before our involvement in the war as Remington was concentrating on making ammo. These are RH patters, RH stands for "Remington Hunting" the "3" is the pattern, and the final digit is the blade length. Below is the PAL RH 34, RH 35, RH 36 and RH 36. I really appreciate the carbon steel blades that can be easily sharpened to a razor edge and maintain it well.

The RH 34 was probably a private purchase knife. Note that it has a wooden pommel; a wartime savings of strategic materials like aluminum. This knife would be a good sized if you had to march it all over the Pacific or Europe, but was generally a bit small and light for a utility knife.

The RH-35 was a military purchase and was also probably available in the Post Exchanges and PXs. The 35 had the military designation of the
Navy Mk. 1. There were many companies making the Mk. 1 knives each with some small variation usually in the pommel.

Although it is fairly certain that the RH-36 was bought in bulk by some units for distribution to the troops, it may have been generally a private purchase knife, available in the various PX or Exchanges for the troops. Judging by the numbers of these knives available today at reasonable prices, they must have been made by the millions. (you can find them in good condition, with the original leather sheaths on eBay in the $55.00 range, if you are patient, even cheaper)

The RH-37, (Mk. 2 Navy knife) was also made both for Military and private distribution. Although Ka-Bar did not make the first or the most of these knives, troops referred to the type, universally, as the Ka Bar. The name stuck so well, that Union Cutlery, who made the Ka Bars, changed their name to Ka Bar in '52. The 7" blade knives went on to serve in Korea, Vietnam and the various sand wars. This particular knife is marked for the USMC. Of course the Marines would not refer to their iconic knife as the Navy Mk. 2, so they called it the USMC Mk.2 Combat Knife. The Mk. 2 didn't enter service until November of '42, so the Ka-Bars you see in the photos of Guadalcanal, are not really Ka-Bars at all, but probably a variety of private purchase knives, like the RH 36.

[Gunsil]

Nice group. The PAL RH 34s are a little odd since they use the blade blanks from a Remington RH 33 rather than a Remington RH 34. I have an unused wooden pommel one with a full BSA etch and BSA marked sheath. I do not think these were PX knives but rather for the civilian market. By the way, the PAL RH 35 and 36 have zinc pommels.

[1967redrider]

Great looking group!

[catspa]

Thanks for sharing those with us, what a great batch of history. Is it just my old eyes, or is the 34 handle shorter?

Parker

[eveled]

Nice group indeed.

My Dad’s knife he carried for all hunting trips was a PAL USN MK1, he was very fond of it. Probably his favorite knife and his only fixed blade. It lived on his night stand. I can definitely verify the quality of the steel and how well it sharpens.

[Maddogfl]

Thanks for sharing those with us, what a great batch of history. Is it just my old eyes, or is the 34 handle shorter?

Parker

Your eyes aren't that bad! It is shorter.

My glove size falls between medium and large and the 34 is a bit short for me. Blade size and shape aside, it feels much like a puukko in the hand. I tried to get a measurement for you and the best I can come up with is that is about 3/8 shorter than the 35, but that is a very subjective measurement as to where you measure to due to the different shapes of the pommels. Seeing as how the average height of a man born in 1920 was three inches shorter than the average height today, the smaller grip would have probably worked fine for most men of the time.

[Maddogfl]

Nice group indeed.

My Dad’s knife he carried for all hunting trips was a PAL USN MK1, he was very fond of it. Probably his favorite knife and his only fixed blade. It lived on his night stand. I can definitely verify the quality of the steel and how well it sharpens. BC49BF3A-B098-4706-A72D-ED05B5FAE4EA.jpeg

That is a very nice knife. My RH-35 hoard is still growing as budget allows. Here are some other maker's version of the Mk 1: Top to bottom: PAL,
Geneva Forge, Colonial and Western. The Western was not an official issue knife, but was very popular.

[eveled]

They are a fun pattern to collect. I do not have an original Colonial like yours. It’s getting harder to find them in such nice condition.

[Maddogfl]

88C89533-83B5-47E4-876C-890DBFDD544A.jpeg

They are a fun pattern to collect. I do not have an original Colonial like yours. It’s getting harder to find them in such nice condition.

That is a damn nice bunch of blades! What are the two new looking blades, 2nd and third from the left on the top row?

It is getting pricey growing the collection lately. I need to sell off a bunch of duplicates to finance some new stuff. I haven't figured out how I ended up with five Cattaraugus 225 Qs, except that if someone list one cheap enough, I will buy it.

I follow pricing on the RH 26 and the Cattaraugus and have noticed about a 20% decline in the selling prices, for both, over the last month or so. I suspect that the extra money spent driving to work is driving down the costs. I guess I should hope for a depression! (just teasing)

[eveled]

Thanks for the kind words. I haven’t added anything to this drawer in a long time. Bargains are hard to find.

The black one and the next 2 are KA-BAR reproduction MKI’s. the next one is a modern rubber handled colonial. The next 7 are ww2 mk1’s from different makers. Next is a USN MK3, then the set of Pal blades like yours. Last one is a prewar remington.

[Maddogfl]

Thanks for the kind words. I haven’t added anything to this drawer in a long time. Bargains are hard to find.

The black one and the next 2 are KA-BAR reproduction MKI’s. the next one is a modern rubber handled colonial. The next 7 are ww2 mk1’s from different makers. Next is a USN MK3, then the set of Pal blades like yours. Last one is a prewar remington.

I will give you a nickel for that spare sheath, if you could finance it....

[eveled]

Lol! Let me think about it. NO!

It’s actually not really a spare I have several more unused PAL MK1’s without sheaths. Including a couple NOS

2F046EB1-BA22-41FC-B236-9103C8144902.jpeg (24.83 KiB) Viewed 632 times

[catspa]

How do you get the knives to stay in place with the drawer opening straight up like that?

Parker

Nice batch, BTW.

[Maddogfl]

Lol! Let me think about it. NO!

It’s actually not really a spare I have several more unused PAL MK1’s without sheaths. Including a couple NOS 2F046EB1-BA22-41FC-B236-9103C8144902.jpeg

Why, suh, that was rather abrupt! Couldn't you have had the decency to let me down with more kindness and empathy?

[eveled]

How do you get the knives to stay in place with the drawer opening straight up like that?

Parker

Nice batch, BTW.

I have an antigravity vortex machine running in my mancave.

[eveled]

Lol! Let me think about it. NO!

It’s actually not really a spare I have several more unused PAL MK1’s without sheaths. Including a couple NOS 2F046EB1-BA22-41FC-B236-9103C8144902.jpeg

Why, suh, that was rather abrupt! Couldn't you have had the decency to let me down with more kindness and empathy?

I’m sorry let me reconsider your offer and think about it some more. …………………..