WOW talk about bringing up an old thread. At first i got excited then realized how old it is.
But as far as the recent question by Colorado, it was probably AUS 6. Kind of lame by todays standards, but these large original "tactical folders" came out before spyderco's small one-handers and their clips. The Al Mar blade was so thick, it didn't matter (no worries of breakage with reasonable use). Didn't hold an edge for long but easy to resharpen, "good enough for government work" like a real military knife.
Some say there was a few early ones with stronger carbon SK-5 blades like with early SOG Tigersharks but this is highly debated.
Here's my large one (3003), at the very top with the original sheath:
It's hard to date the exact years they were offered since the cool japanese catalogues listed earlier dont show dates.
From what I gathered there were 2 runs of the "green beret / special forces / de opressor liber" series. late eighties and the mid to late nineties.
I think i read the differences can be told by their boxes the easiest, but are rarely shown.
The first run of the largest size had the larger brown sheath with no Al Mar logo on it, only the Special Forces symbol and NO Sharpening stone pocket and the blade said seki-japan. Just like mine shown in the pic.
the later run may have come with a different sheath, the one more commonly seen with the other non Special Forces stamped bolsters, that were narrower and came with 2 pockets, one for the sharpener, i think the second run came in camo cordura and the blade said something else (moki or AMK?).
It's harder to date the smaller ones (3002/3001) since they all came with the same smaller soft folding velcro nylon sheath.
It gets complicated since after Al Mars death (1992) and the buying out / restructuring of the company, there was an overlap when they cancelled orders and changed manufacturers and the old manufacturer continued to finish the number of ordered knives and still put them out into the market. Same quality knife but technically without the Al Mars companies permission, that's why they were considered "fake". I heard some of the second "SF" series may have fell under this, hence the confusion.
As mentioned much earlier, I agree that the ones with numbered stampings on the TANG and NO MAKER were more than likely pre production tryout runs and/or for special distributers to try out and were EARLY seki SEREs. Later on they stamped the TANG normaly and put a P/P (Pre Production) and number along the side of the spine of the blade. they continue to do the later, to this day.
I believe the GREEN rubber handles SERE was not part of the very first SF run, but is still rare and collectible. but like the black rubber one, the handle tends to get destroyed easy from use due to pocket and sheath wear/heat/sweat and fell apart. This is why MINT examples are so valueable. It's common to see damaged black rubber ones with imperfect handles on internet auction sites. The brown/black layered micarta was much more durable and user friendly.
Sorry nothing is exact but hope this helps anyone, or feel free to add to it / make corrections.
From this thread and pokin' around on other sites, it seems that it is definitively a "Sere Attack I" (3001B) series with the black neoprene scales. It looks exactly like the 2nd knife down in your above post. It says "Seki Japan" on the right blade side and has the same exact markings and gold inlays throughout as in your post. No dates/model #'s or any other such markings that I can find.
