Does anyone else have or seen this KABAR?

RetiredGuns

RetiredGuns

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I issued this KABAR to myself as a young Armorer in the Marines and kept it the entire 20 years I served. Finding info on this contract is like pulling teeth! I found one little sentence in a Knife World referencing them to Vietnam era and that's it. Compared to the later KABARS and store bought show pieces it is a tank of a blade. Anyone have one or seen another OMOR J417?

kabar01.jpg


kabar02.jpg
 
I can't help you with your question, but being a big fan of the Ka Bar USMC, all I can say is WOW....what a treasure.:thumbup:
 
What you have is a reproduction made commercially in Japan back in the day. Evidently someone "lost" their Camillus made kabar and substituted the commercial version instead. As long as you are happy and it brings back fond memories, keep it. You won't get much if you were to sell it IMO. Neat story though!!
 
D R E said:
What you have is a reproduction made commercially in Japan back in the day. Evidently someone "lost" their Camillus made kabar and substituted the commercial version instead. As long as you are happy and it brings back fond memories, keep it. You won't get much if you were to sell it IMO. Neat story though!!
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Do you have any references for this? According to Knifeworld volume 36, Jan 2010 OMOR manufactured knives for the military and may have made knives for a CIA special observations group called CISO. Just like our .45s, many different builders received contracts to build milspec weapons & knives. KA-BAR, Ontario Knife Company, Camillus Cutlery, Case Knives, and several other knife companies manufactured the knives. I really don't know much beyond that as there is almost zilch info available. If it was a replacement knife then it was replaced during or close to the end of the Vietnam war which in itself is sort of unlikely because we lost/lose stuff all the time in the military and a lost KABAR wouldn't raise an eyebrow even with a unit Armorer in a time of conflict.
The only thing I am absolutely positive of is that it is no newer than the 70's.
 
bigmo66 said:
Do you have any references for this? According to Knifeworld volume 36, Jan 2010 OMOR manufactured knives for the military and may have made knives for a CIA special observations group called CISO. Just like our .45s, many different builders received contracts to build milspec weapons & knives. KA-BAR, Ontario Knife Company, Camillus Cutlery, Case Knives, and several other knife companies manufactured the knives. I really don't know much beyond that as there is almost zilch info available. If it was a replacement knife then it was replaced during or close to the end of the Vietnam war which in itself is sort of unlikely because we lost/lose stuff all the time in the military and a lost KABAR wouldn't raise an eyebrow even with a unit Armorer in a time of conflict.
The only thing I am absolutely positive of is that it is no newer than the 70's.
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All I can say for sure is that it is not an "Official" contract knife. Official contract knives during the Viet Nam war were made by Camillus and Conetta.

Beyond that I know Kiffe and Gutman had Mark 2 type knives cataloged and they were manufactured in Japan during the Vietnam war. See the ad for Gutman which appeared in 1968:

gutmann-c1968supp-p07-011.jpg
 
Most of the knives that passed through my hands as an Armorer were indeed Camillus and Ontario with maybe a handful of odd names which of course I can't remember. I also remember looking at old WWII and probably Korea era knives and a lot of them had the straighter handles like the OMOR. It's an odd duck..
 
bigmo66 said:
Most of the knives that passed through my hands as an Armorer were indeed Camillus and Ontario with maybe a handful of odd names which of course I can't remember. I also remember looking at old WWII and probably Korea era knives and a lot of them had the straighter handles like the OMOR. It's an odd duck..
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I doubt if you saw any Ontario Mark 2’s come through because Ontario picked up the contract for that model in 1980. They did have a contract on the flight knives issued to the pilots though.

Since you remember seeing the older knives coming through it’s a good bet you handled a few Uticas. Utica was the first post war manufacturer of that knife before the later Camillus and Conetta contracts.

An interesting side point on the Utica version, they were initially produced in a brown untreated leather. Just like the WWII model. Later they changed over to the "Oxblood" color seen on the Camillus version. When the order came in to change over to black from brown, all the leather, including knife sheaths, was then died black. You can still find multi-colored leather sheaths because the backs weren't dyed black, only the front.

Best,
Dan
 
Yes I remember Utica knives. I am trying to remember what brand the pilot knives were. I never handled those much because we didn't keep them in the armory like the standard KABARs. On another side note, I was surprised when I saw how many different makers of the .45 we had. Colt, Remington Rand, Ithica, Union Switch & Signal, Singer, Springfield...

Thanks for the info so far.
 
I own one that is almost exact to this one.
The stamp is slightly different though.
Mine has "ROMO J-417 " stamped on one side, and "JAPAN" on the other side of the blade near the handle.
Everything else looks just the same including the leather hand grip and sheath.

If I can get photobucket to reset my password, I'll add pictures.
 
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Semper Fi Guns,
I admire your avatar very much.
My Kabar was. Gift in the 60's. It's marked only as KABAR.
By any chance, were you ever an armorer on Marble Mountain? I flew from there in 1970 and 71.

Good night Chesty, where ever you are.
Scarface48
 
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