A couple of recent pickups

[steve99f]

Kind of puzzled by these two. The sabre ground BSA etched stainless knife blade looks like a Little Hunter but have yet to see one of these with a leather handle. Maybe a special for the BSA? Blade length by actual measurement is at 3 and 3/8 inch. The second flat ground knife measures the same. Looks like a Little Trading Post but no sure, blade is down some.. Both are marked with KA-BAR and Union Cutlery Co on the reverse. The BSA etched knife handle isn't in the greatest condition but the blade etches are good and it isn't down much. No blade etch on the red handled knife I could see and the blade has a lot of factory finish remaining with some minor scratching, from the sheath maybe.

My question is what the heck do I have? Thanks in advance. Gene, what are your thoughts?

[Gunsil]

Steve, I think this is what you have when the blade is full. There are no brochures past 1938 that have come to light but the Little Hunter in the late 1940s seems to have lost it's saber grind. I think that they began making them flat ground around 1940 but have no proof. Most of the flat ground 3&1/2" bladed ones will have the WW2 or postWW2 marks but there are some with the Union Cut marks. As for your BSA knife, it would be classified as a Little Hunter by me, it is the same blade blank. There are leather LH knives, both in carbon and stainless, they are hard to find and I think are later additions to the LH line. LTPs only have 3" blades and their handles are tiny, much smaller than the LH handles. I have a leather with a wood pommel and steel butt cap that is a definite WW2 LH with saber ground blade in my cases, you can see it at Lewisburg. I just inspected my LH stash during the last week and have found something crazy like 34 variations and I know I don't have all of them!!

[steve99f]

34 variations and still missing some? When I see them come up on ebay they attract attention.

So probably not a Little Trading Post but war time or early post war Little Hunter whose blade design may have changed. Blade length certainly supports that. Gene, thanks much and I'll see you in Lewisburg.

[btrwtr]

Steve you are putting together a very nice collection of fixed blades.

[steve99f]

Thanks Wayne. Mostly Ka-Bars and Union Cutlery with a Case thrown in for good measure from time to time. The history of them is an attraction along with the search for ads, catalogs, etc. This place is great because of collectors like yourself , Gene and many others that contribute their expertise and knowledge.

[Gunsil]

The orange handle one pretty much has to be pre-war. No aluminum pommels in use during the war. The post war ones will not have the Union Cut on the back. I just was looking through a box of LTPs and in the late forties to early fifties they used bigger handles, very close to LH in size. They look kind of funny with those tiny blades and larger handles. The BSA ones were only made pre-war as far as any ads in Boy's Life show. Just talking LH with Brad Wood, I have one of the variations I had thought I didn't. Still missing over five LH just in stag/stag. Dang there are a lot of minor differences!! Gonna start with sorting LTP soon, but I know some of mine are doubles.

[steve99f]

Gene I checked the handle length of the orange handled knife 3 1/8" , the BSA etched blade handle length is at 3 inches, measured from behind the guard to the end of the handle. Due to the girth of the orange handle it doesn't feel short in the hand, unlike the BSA knife.

I had previously posted this knife while you were away. This is the one with the unmarked sheath but has the attributes of a KA BAR factory sheath, blade length at just a pinch over 4", OAL is 7.5 inches. Marked KA-BAR over REG .... and Union Cutlery Co over Olean, NY on reverse. I have no idea what the model is but it looks like a knife in a factory box you had posted a while ago. What do you think?

A model 98?

[Gunsil]

Steve, it is pretty hard to confuse an LTP with an LH. When I said smaller handles on the LTP I didn't mean smaller length, I meant smaller all around, and by a long ways. I still haven't found the model number to your other knife, it is pre-war, and yes, it is the same model as the one I have in the box. These are a few of my best.

[steve99f]

Those are some beauties Gene! The smaller size knives are interesting. The cell handled LH with the fuller is my favorite.

[Gunsil]

Steve, I finally found the brochure with your cell knife in it, it is model R205. The Little Trading Posts are among my favorites as are the Little Hunters. The cell/stag LH knives can be found with butterscotch cell as above, tortoise, cracked ice, and french pearl cell and with no pins in the handle or with pins in the handle so there are a lot of variations. Then there are those with brass spacers or no brass spacers and some have small pommel nuts and some have large pommel nuts. When one digs deeper and finds there are differences in blade markings one can go really nuts.

[steve99f]

Thank you for looking Gene I appreciate it. All those variations will make it challenging to run them all down.