Interesting Kabar

[treefarmer]

My son gave me this well used Kabar stockman yesterday. I noticed as I was starting to clean it up and sharpen the neglected blades the shield is missing the "r" . There is no evidence of it being worn down that much to remove the "R" by wear. I would have thought the Kabar stamped shield would made with one stroke. What happened to the "r"?

This appears to be a 1081, maybe.

Kaba, there is a knife brand by that name.

Treefarmer

[zzyzzogeton]

May just be my imagination, or the way the light is reflecting, but it looks like there might be the remnants of the the little curlique on the back side of the "r" there.

A possibility is that the "r" on the stamp they were making the shields with broke off the die.

[herbva]

In your second picture, it looks like the end of the shield where the "r" was, or should be, may be sitting up a little higher than the rest of the shield. In other words, that end is not flush with the surface of the shield or is sitting out a bit "proud". This would explain why that end is more worn than the rest of the shield. Perhaps I'm reaching for an answer, but that's my thought.