Can anyone help identify this knife?

L

lost_grrl

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Sep 13, 2015
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My husband found this old Kabar knife and he is having a hard time identifying it. It is around 8 inches long with a fixed blade and the handle is metal of some sort, alternating between a blackish metal and brass colored stripes. We cannot find it online anywhere. I planned on posting a photo of it but the picture I have is just on my phone and I'll need to put it in my online photo account so I can post it but maybe someone has an idea in the meantime?

Edit: here is the photo

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sorry - but we'll definitely need a picture of the knife.
you can post it to FB as a public pic and then paste that link into your post if you don't have a flickr or photobucket acount.
 
OK, right click on the picture and select "copy image location" -- then paste that into your post here between image tags.
should look something like this:
 
looks like a pre-1968 Kabar 1233 skinning knife that someone took apart and made their own handles for.
 
Thanks! I figured it was something like that since we couldn't find a pic online. Is it worth anything other than being just a knife?
 
It looks like someone did a really good job on the handle with the shaping and grip. Nice find!
I'm sure you can find a production Ka-Bar sheath pretty cheap.
 
NCSlice said:
It looks like someone did a really good job on the handle with the shaping and grip. Nice find!
I'm sure you can find a production Ka-Bar sheath pretty cheap.
Click to expand...

He has a Kabar sheath for it. He has no idea where he got it...just found it in the bottom of an old tool box that his dad gave him when he was a kid. He was hoping (as we all do when we find old things) that it was valuable but it seems unlikely. I don't know why anyone would put this particular handle on it...it's not at all comfortable because the individual metal stripes (for lack of a better term) are ridged so the skin of your palm almost gets pinched a bit...for sure if you held it very firmly for long you would end up with an imprint of the ridges on your hand. Other than that it seems made well... I don't think you can tell from just looking at it that the blade was not originally attached to the handle.
 
Lost_grrl, the handle is 100% original to the knife. KA-BAR first used that handle type sometime in the early 1940s for a very short production run and those knives were marked KA-BAR on the ricasso and etched KA-BAR DE LUXE out on the blade. Your knife is a more recent version being marked Kabar in italics. I cannot see the marks well in your photos, if there is a model number on the back side it was likely made after 1968, if there is no model number on the back side it was made in the 1950s-1960s. There are some folks who collect the 50s knives, and again the handle on your knife is factory original.
 
Kabar had a whole line-up of these knives. I have 4 or 5 different models with that handle. When I first encountered them, i assumed they were a short-lived Kabar attempt to match Western's "Black Beauty" line-up of the late 50s and 60s. Google the term "western knife black beauty" for examples. Western's BBs had aluminum and black phenolic plastic as handle components.

When I asked Gunsil about my bumblebee handled knives a year or so ago and he told me about the 1930s/40s "Kabar Deluxe" knives, I had to change my thinking. They would have been phased out very quickly as "too brass intensive" during WW2.

My question now (and one of my Quixotic quests) has been to determine if Western introduced the Black Beauties in response to Kabar "bringing back" the bumblebees or if Kabar "re-introduced" their bumblebees in response to Western's success with their Black Beauty aluminum variation on Kabar's previously discontinued "Deluxe" line. What as been frustrating is finding absolutely ZERO ads (so far) about the Kabar bumblebees in old 50s/60s outdoor magazines to try to provide a reference point. The earliest Western BB ad I have found is an Outdoor Life ad from 1956.
 
Yup, just an old skinner. The bonus here is being American made as that particular lineup is now manufactured overseas, in Thailand I think.

Other than being "vintage", it is not valuable. I'd call that a pawn shop find. So hang on it to it, or eBay it for chump change If you want. I'd hold onto it as you'd have to buy another older model just to replace it if you wanted another U.S. made knife and not a new one.
 
zzyzzogeton: can you post any pictures of your knives? I literally cannot find a single photo that looks remotely like this one.
 
gunsil: there are no other markings on the knife. It seems weird that I can't find any pic that looks like this crazy handle! You would think that with the Internet it would be pretty easy to find.
 
I posted one with the same handle, just an older knife, different model blade but the handle construction and materials are the same as yours. I believe your knife is a mid-late 1950s knife. I have one like yours I think, I'll post a pic if I can dig it up tomorrow. As to the internet there are many many knives, especially hunting knives for which you will find few pics and little info. There are no books on KA-BAR hunting knives, I just happen to have a lot of old catalogs, and some info will be published in a few months. Your knife will not fall in those pages though, the study was done on earlier knives. I probably have three or four different models from the same era of yours although I only really like the earlier knives, I thought these handles were interesting. I am sure they likely didn't sell well, all that brass makes them unnecessarily heavy. At least when Western made their "Black Beauty" series they used aluminum rather than brass so their similar knives are a lot lighter to carry than the Kabar versions.
 
I'll have to dig them out of the box they are in out in the shop.

I once took pictures of all my "keeper" knives back in 2005. Took FOREVER as my camera at the time could only hold 28 pics before I had to down load them. After I had downloaded and renamed all the files, I very dutifully burned the files to a cd as a back-up "just in case" the HD failed. The HD didn't fail, but it sure did take a hike along with the computer when it was stolen.

Oh wait, didn't you have the back-up cd. Surely they didn't steal that as well? Well, when I moved back out to the farm in 2006, I had "help" from the family. I foolishly allowed my sister to do the "light packing" i.e., my office/desk/supply closet/ etc. I said "Make sure you label those boxes so I can find things." Label them she did - 48 boxes labeled "OFFICE" with a black wide-tip marker. :eek: Someday I'll find the disk.

Gunsil, I agree that the knives are very handle heavy due to all the brass. But somehow, for me at least, that heavy handle has a really secure feel to it when trying to do fine work with the knives. Some might say I'm a little weird because of that, but then, not only do I march to a different drummer on many occasions, I bring my own band. :D:D:D I also like polkas played on bagpipes.
 
DSCN2426.jpgDSCN2427.jpgDSCN2428.jpg Hi lost_grrl, here are a couple I found in my "KA-BAR room", one is your knife exactly in mint unused condition as is the other model shown. They do have some of the green crud that forms on brass on the handles, sheaths are original.


Zzy, I know what you mean about the weight feeling good in your hand. The fiber washers shrink with time though and the brass the becomes abrasive to your palms. The weight thing bothered me back in the day since I did some fairly tough hiking when I was younger and we weighed all items to go and usually selected the lightest of any item we could. I had an old 272-5 KA-BAR (woodcraft style) that weighed a couple of ounces less than my buddy's brass handled Kabar and that meant a couple ounces more food I could carry on a long several day hike.
 
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