All About Pocket Knives

I don't know much about that knife. He said there was a sheath with it at one time and he carried it over his shoulder.

Thank's guy's for the info on the sheath's...I'm on the hunt now...

Dimitri, That Seebee is a neat little knife... ...I think I'll keep eye out for one of those.

Bob

Thanks Bob

They ain`t easy to find

It`s been almost a whole month. Anyone pick up any new ones?

I haven`t found any Military knives lately

Just so happens that an old Navy buddy of mine just a few days ago sent me a 6 inch Camillus Pilots or aircrew survival knife with a well used sheath which I will use to have a replacement made to its exact specs. The knife still has in excess 85% of parkerizing with what appears to be a small amount of sharpening. Some how the tip has lost a fraction. Bob, somewhere I think I have one of those bolo's with the sheath. I will try to find it.
moss

Looks like it is in very good shape Moss

It should not be too hard to find an original sheath for one of these, I would think.

Picked up a couple Mark 1's...Robeson No. 20, one is as issued and the other has been rehandled.
The "theather" version has nice size handle and substantial guard and pommel of aluminum that
feel's good in the hand...much stronger than the issue knife.

Bob

Bob,

Both of those look great


The theater one is very well done, someone had some talent

Here are a couple of Mark II's I picked up in a trade. The Utica knives were evidently not MK 2 marked. This is the best Leather sheath I have gotten out here in this rainy land. By the way I also got two 1911 Holsters a 1944 and a 1945 both fully marked and like they are near unused.
moss

The Utica Mk2 you have wasn't made until the '60s, by then Mk2s were no longer made with either MK2 or branch of service markings, as they were universal to all branches.

I hope this info is useful...I've responded before in this forum without any acknowledgement of whether it was even read, let alone helpful.

Hi elbertson:
PLease do not let a lack of a reply put you off. Anything anyone can contribute is certainly appreciated. Thank you for the info.
moss

Thanks, just nice to know I'm not wasting my, or anyone else's, time. I feel info ain't worth a hoot if it can't be shared.

elbertson wrote:I hope this info is useful...I've responded before in this forum without any acknowledgement of whether it was even read, let alone helpful.

Let me say there are about a dozen of us that actually contribute to this forum on a regular basis. Not a lot of folks at AAPK collect fixed blade knives, especially military. So there is a big lag in response time on these threads

Like Moss said, don`t let that discourage you. I know I am reading what you write and appreciated your input

Added another one to Mark ll herd...a guard marked Robeson USN in pretty good shape. I noticed the tip on this is more blunt
than Camillus and KaBar's and the handle tapers down towards the pommel...I was wondering if the guard marked knives were
made towards the end of WWll...?

Bob

Stamps were moved from the blade to the guard at some point (mid-late 1943 if I remember right).

Jim

Thank you Jim that's one question down... ...always been curious why they went from blade marked to guard marked...cost cutting or a change in manufacturing process.

Bob

WelderBob wrote:Thank you Jim that's one question down... ...always been curious why they went from blade marked to guard marked...cost cutting or a change in manufacturing process.

Bob

The general story is that the change was made out of concern that some blades (actually the M3, not the KaBar) were breaking at the stamp. Tests were done by the Infantry Board and Springfield, and the change was made as soon as it could be implemented. I don't know if the breakage was ever shown to be due to the blade stamps though--and the records of the tests/investigation are missing.

There is another argument though: the guards were unhardened mild steel, while the blades were high-carbon steel. Marking the guards would result in less wear to the die, and longer life before replacement. There was a lot of call for diemakers at the time, and I suspect anything that could be done to extend the life of tooling became a consideration.

But who knows? Maybe some guy just wanted to confuse all the future collectors?

Jim

I was always under the impression that the change from blade stamp location was to cut costs and increase efficiency. All they would need to do to change over from USN to USMC production was to grab prestamped guards from a different box and use them. Makes sense as prestamped guards are cheaper to produce and take up a lot less space than prestamped blades. Don't know if that's the reason for sure, but it seems logical.
I find it hard to believe that they would seriously blame stamped blades for blade breakage. The stampings were typically very light, and stamped blade knives have been around awhile before WW2. Sounds to me that it was more likely one of those stories concocted in the field to try to explain the change...kinda like M-16s being made by Mattel, or EJ jungle boots being made with input from Lady Bird Johnson. Also consider all the other government contracted knives that continued to be made with stamped blades.

I don't know; all I know for sure is that Frank Trzaska has stated that the reports from Springfield/Infantry Board are in the Index at the National Archives, but the reports are missing. I've never cared enough to find out the titles of the reports, or what description there might be.

It seems that often with such investigations, the results don't really answer the original questions (they may resolve a problem--and that's often a good thing--but they may not answer the original statement). Apparently there were problems with knives breaking, and apparently it stopped (or declined) after the location of the stamping changed--but there may have been other changes, in tempering, steel source, or ???

Jim

Mossdancer wrote:Just so happens that an old Navy buddy of mine just a few days ago sent me a 6 inch Camillus Pilots or aircrew survival knife with a well used sheath which I will use to have a replacement made to its exact specs. The knife still has in excess 85% of parkerizing with what appears to be a small amount of sharpening. Some how the tip has lost a fraction. Bob, somewhere I think I have one of those bolo's with the sheath. I will try to find it.
moss

Today @ a fleamarket I got a knife just like this one that has ONTARIO 10-76 at the top of the handle on the side of the cap w/ no other markings, did Camillus make this knife for Ontario,I would swear these are one in the same except mine has a 5" blade :?pictures on pg4.

Your knife is correct it is from 74 as it says. Probably made by Ontario. The six inch blades are before 62. Show us a pic when you get a chance. Did you get a matching sheath if so it may have a date on the back.
moss

Thank's again Jim and Elbertson...good points to consider. I can see from a manufacturing standpoint that having a unmarked blade would simplify the process, just use one set of die's and put on whatever guard was needed to identify the knife for that branch of service. I imagine the subject of blade breakage due to stamping will continue to be debated...heck we need something to cuss and discuss...

Bob

I think I put these on the forum somewhere before but this is a better thread for them. Collins Legitimus Model 1250 Canadian Army machetes dated 1943 and 1944. The sheaths are dated 1941 and 1947 on the top one and 1944 on the bottom one.

Nice machetes...I really like bolo short machetes. Good to have a little extra weight out on the end.

Here are a couple of relics for the grist mill The Pal Utility is in superior condition. These old USMC
marked KA-Bars are far and few in between anymore.The mask looks to be NOS The issue was 1945. moss