10th Special Forces etching on Endura blade

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William Cannon

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Jan 1, 2009
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I just won a blacked out Endura on Ebay. It has the 10th Special forces Trojan horse emblem etched on the blade where the Spyderco emblem should be .Anyone know if these were issued to the 10th SF or just a PX type of sales item?
 
Not seeing it, I can tell you that the Trojan Horse emblem is associated with 1st battalion (10th Group’s forward battalion in Germany). As such I would be surprised if it was a PX special. It it has any other numbers on it that starts with 0 (a series of 3 or 4 numbers) you would identify the team. There might be other info if there is a slogan or a something you might be able to identify it further.
 
Often times someone will round up interested parties and sponsor a custom knife. Generally a handful of people, I’ve rarely seen entire units do it. When deployed, someone did a custom handgun and another did a Benchmade knife. I could probably count on my fingers and toes the number that jumped in for them.

I wouldn‘t assume it to be a PX special unless it was a major command at that installation.. for example, Fort Bragg PX might do 82nd airborne and Fort Campbell might do 101st. But possible for 10th SFG. I personally haven’t seen custom Spydercos in any PX.
 
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Paratrooper06 said:
But possible for 10th SFG. I personally haven’t seen custom Spydercos in any PX.
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I’ve see all that down the the Benchmade PX specials. But I never saw a Spyderco sold in Germany. I also never saw a pre-engraved knife at a PX kiosk for a single battalion that is isolated by itself… that’s why I lean towards a custom/group order. FRG’s will sometimes go ham, deployment knives, team knives, etc. That’s why looking at the engraving might shed more light on it. Sometimes the image will overshadow the numbers/slogans if you don’t know what they signify.
 
StoneAndSteel said:
Not seeing it, I can tell you that the Trojan Horse emblem is associated with 1st battalion (10th Group’s forward battalion in Germany). As such I would be surprised if it was a PX special. It it has any other numbers on it that starts with 0 (a series of 3 or 4 numbers) you would identify the team. There might be other info if there is a slogan or a something you might be able to identify it further.
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Thanks. I'll post a photo when I get it. It is still not shipped.
 
That looks like aftermarket work to me, not something done by Spyderco. Hard to say from just that photo.
 
It’s looking pretty rusty and beat up. Probably an old knife.

As for the Trojan horse, here is the history. It was worn on berets until 1962.

The Trojan Horse Badge

Distinctive Identity for the 10th Special Forces Group
arsof-history.org arsof-history.org
 
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Still leaning towards a custom job, but unless there is something engraved in the reverse I can't see anything marking it beyond the 10th SFG. And even then at one point this was the SF crest. If it IS super old, it might not even be in reference to 10th, but to the SF regiment. I can only speak to the War on Terror and beyond, but this crest is now associated with 1/10. The Trojan Horse crest is still worn on berets today at 1/10 both as a reminder of the unit's history and as a reminder of how the green beret was once unauthorized. Cool find in any event.
 
yablanowitz said:
Gen 4 Endura, can't be older than 2006. At my age, that's almost new. The very first Endura came out in 1990, which I wouldn't consider "super old".
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Yeah, I'm not spun up on the release dates of Spydie models. But if we're looking at a 2006 or later blade, my bet is now custom order for a guy that served in 1/10.
 
Iirc Michael Janich once posted on the Spyderco forum Spyderco made Endura's for the Special Forces Group. I don't know for what team they did. Maybe Michael Janich can be reached by sending a DM on the Spyderco forum.
 
StoneAndSteel said:
Still leaning towards a custom job, but unless there is something engraved in the reverse I can't see anything marking it beyond the 10th SFG. And even then at one point this was the SF crest. If it IS super old, it might not even be in reference to 10th, but to the SF regiment. I can only speak to the War on Terror and beyond, but this crest is now associated with 1/10. The Trojan Horse crest is still worn on berets today at 1/10 both as a reminder of the unit's history and as a reminder of how the green beret was once unauthorized. Cool find in any event.
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There is nothing on the reverse side.
 
William Cannon said:
I just won a blacked out Endura on Ebay. It has the 10th Special forces Trojan horse emblem etched on the blade where the Spyderco emblem should be .Anyone know if these were issued to the 10th SF or just a PX type of sales item?
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Interesting find! I had a friend who was in the 10th SF group for close to 20 years (unfortunately he passed away last year). He would have liked that!
 
The problem is what do you do with it? Imho you can't carry it because you never served in it. Nice to have in your collection but i really dislike people wearing patches or unit related stuff when you didn't served in one of them. Remember that picture of Jeffrey Epstein wearing a Navy Seal dress uniform?
 
Jim malone said:
The problem is what do you do with it? Imho you can't carry it because you never served in it. Nice to have in your collection but i really dislike people wearing patches or unit related stuff when you didn't served in one of them. Remember that picture of Jeffrey Epstein wearing a Navy Seal dress uniform?
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I agree with what you’re saying. I have unit specific stuff I traded my unit specific stuff for when I was in. They are mementos. Its a cool knife and I served with the 10th. I think I would put it in the safe.
 
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