All About Pocket Knives

Two of my coworkers are veterans. Talking about pocket knives with the Marine veteran prompted him to bring his Paratrooper's knife to show me. This is the first one I ever got to hold!
Following that, the Army veteran talked about the knife that had been issued to him. He liked it, but stated that it needed to be sharpened.
I took care of that for him with my pocket Diamond sharpener. It is a good thing too, as this Gerber has some TOUGH steel! It could eat most sharpening stones for breakfast! Sorry for the sub-par pictures, but these were taken as we stood out in the parking lot by our vehicles.

Nice to see what knives have meaning for those veterans. Those are some special knives, even more so to those who carried and used them.

Reminds me of my dad, and the custom fixed blade he carried in WWII. It was made and given to him by a machinist who was the father of one of his best friends. It had dad’s service number stamped on the tang, and he took it with him to the Philippines. After dad was wounded and evacuated while unconscious from the Agusan Valley on Mindanao, he never saw the knife or any of his personal belongings again. He often talked about that knife, wondering what happened to it, until he died at age 90. That knife obviously meant a lot to him.

Ken

Been carrying this one for the past several months.

I have shared this before. My dad was EOD in the USAF. He carried this PSK as part of his "kit"

As for myself, I was issued a TL-29 with my tools in the USAF, I have it somewhere. It was already a hand-me-down from some other Airman or Buck Sargent, and had our unit (485 EIG) scratched into the covers. (no, I didn't mod it)

StClair and Kjentvet were the only ones in the Battery that carried a Randall. StClair carried a #1 Randall Fighting Knife and Kjentvet carried a Randall #18 Crutch Tip. The pictures are not of their knives. They are representative pictures I got off the Web.

I like 95% of the rest of the Battery, carried a bayonet and coveted those Randalls.

jerryd6818 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 27, 2020 4:07 pm StClair and Kjentvet were the only ones in the Battery that carried a Randall. StClair carried a #1 Randall Fighting Knife and Kjentvet carried a Randall #18 Crutch Tip. The pictures are not of their knives. They are representative pictures I got off the Web.

I like 95% of the rest of the Battery, carried a bayonet and coveted those Randalls.

My dad recounted that he had a chance to get a Randall when he was in, but ended up not doing it and regretting it.

glennbad wrote: ↑Tue Oct 27, 2020 5:48 pm

jerryd6818 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 27, 2020 4:07 pm StClair and Kjentvet were the only ones in the Battery that carried a Randall. StClair carried a #1 Randall Fighting Knife and Kjentvet carried a Randall #18 Crutch Tip. The pictures are not of their knives. They are representative pictures I got off the Web.

I like 95% of the rest of the Battery, carried a bayonet and coveted those Randalls.

My dad recounted that he had a chance to get a Randall when he was in, but ended up not doing it and regretting it.

I'll bet he did. Kjentvet ended up selling his #18 long before I began my searches and found him. He had some major regret going on. I think he sold it for a few hundred $$ and now they can bring $5000 for a documented Viet Nam carried #18.

Most of us Navy Snipes carried Buck 110's, because they were built strong and most important didn't rust and held a great edge for the tough work in the Engineering spaces. ftd

Here is my old Camillus I bought new back in 1973. It has the U.S. Camillus stamp on the Ricasso. I used to carry it on the left strap of my LBE harness when I was active duty. It even went with me to NKP Nakhon Phanom Thailand. Also carried it for 16 years in the Reserves. Got it out today and put some saddle soap on the scabbard and oiled it again while I was cleaning one of my pistols.

My uncles Ontario that served this country in Vietnam well.Also his field knife Camillus

garddogg56 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 28, 2020 11:22 pm My uncles Ontario that served this country in Vietnam well.Also his field knife Camillus

fergusontd wrote: ↑Tue Oct 27, 2020 7:09 pm Most of us Navy Snipes carried Buck 110's, because they were built strong and most important didn't rust and held a great edge for the tough work in the Engineering spaces. ftd

Yep, couldn't say how many of those passed through my hands. Sorts like ships name Zippo lighters.

My Dad brought this Imperial Bayonet back from his US Army service in Japan in the mid 1950's, he passed it to me in 1990, I carried it with me during OIF in 2003 (ARNG). However the knife that did all the work for me was this Kabar medium Stockman I bought at the MCX in 1998 - it has done V Corps Warfighter exercises in Graf Germany in the winter, desert training at the NTC (Ft. Irwin CA) in the summer and did all my MRE cutting during OIF. Both are honorably retired nowadays (like me and Dad). OH

I didn’t have a photo of my Kabar (except in my hand in the above photo from 2003). Just fixed that. OH