Al mar warrior

[KenHash]

Thanks for the photos,
I would want @bouddha0357 to look at them.
Intersting that the upper part of the guard is missing.

 

[Sidehill Gouger]

Having trained with Bob Taylor I'm not sure I would call this knife a Warrior without the upper guard. It was very important to how he used the knife

 

[Halesangel]

Thanks for the photos,
I would want @bouddha0357 to look at them.
Intersting that the upper part of gthe guard is missing.

I knew you were gonna say that my cousin said when he spoke to Mrs. Mar that was correct. I’m going to have him write down everything that he remembers of that correspondence and I will share with you and the forum

 

[killgar]

I'm probably only adding to the mystery, but I have seen another "Al Mar Warrior" without the upper guard. This one is marked with the "Al Mar" logo. Of course I can't confirm that it's genuine, or that it wasn't modified. The owner described it as "mint", but who knows.

 

[KenHash]

I am speculating that the OP's knife as well as the example posted by Killgar may possibly be models intended
for the Russian market. If I rememver correctly, knives exceeding a certain blade length are not permitted to
have full guards or they will be classed as "cold weapons" which iare regulated and requires a permit.

As for the OP's Warrior, I see nothing to suggest it is not authentic. I do not know if it is a "prototype". But I can attest to the existence of rare but occasional models of factory knives out of Seki that are unmarked or not fully marked as they should be. This "might" be such an example. Would ne interestig to see if any further information can be uncovered.

 

[Halesangel]

I’m hoping Mr Mar’s daughter has info on these as has wife appeared to have.

 

[bouddha0357]

Having trained with Bob Taylor I'm not sure I would call this knife a Warrior without the upper guard. It was very important to how he used the knife

Hi Ken

I will look into it. Gotta admit that I have never seen that one before

Love a good puzzle!

 

[bouddha0357]

Hey all,

So I have started some research but I haven't come up with anything yet.

This being said, the first time I tried to hold the Warrior in icepick grip the upper guard was digging in my wrist.

Considering that the knife is far bigger than originally intended due to G.Sakai's choice of using AUS-6 instead of a better quality steel, I wouldn't be surprised if that modification would've been made at the prototype stage or later on as a modification made at the user's request.

What @KenHash says could be possible too, I am not entirely familiar with Russian knife laws but I am seeing a more and more YouTube videos on the topic of vintage Al Mar knives that are in Russian language.

Thank you very much for your photos @Halesangel

 

[Sidehill Gouger]

AUS-6 and AUS-8 were pretty much standard for Al Mar knives.

 

[bouddha0357]

AUS-6 and AUS-8 were pretty much standard for Al Mar knives.

They were, however G.Sakai also had access to ATS34 and some Al Mar's of that time period were in that steel.

The main reason why the Al Mar Warriors is such a massive beast is that G.Sakai decided to use AUS-6 instead of higher quality steel and to compensate for it, they upped all the dimensions.