EK Commando questions

Bruceter

Bruceter

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May 19, 2000
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Hi All,

I just picked up an EK Commando knife at a garage sale yesterday pretty cheap. It is about 12-3/4" OAL with a ~7-3/4" blade.(7-3/4" from the guard to the point about 6-3/4" cutting edge) It has a bowie/clip point blade with a para-cord wrapped handle and a retangular guard. It's marked on the reverse side of the tang "MADE IN U.S.A. EFFINGHAM. IL." the obverse has a logo that reads" KOREA WORLD WAR II VIETNAM" accros the top. A larger "EK" in script over two crossed knives and 1941 in the center and "COMMANDO" on the bottom.The sheath is a heavy nylon webbing (OD green)with some sort of hard liner, velcro retaining strap and a tie down loop at the bottom. It's marked"Handmade in U.S.A. EK Commando Knife CO Effingham IL. (Hope that is enough info)
The questions I have are.

What kind of steel is it made from? Carbon, Stainless?

The guard is a little loose, is there a way that I can fix it? I haven't unwrapped the para cord to take a look at it yet.

Any help would be appreciated.

TIA

Bruceter
 
It's stainless 440C (IIRC)
It's an EK #5 made from when Ek (John Ek) was made by Blackjack and Mike Stewart (now the owner of Bark River)
I'm guessing you have a beadblasted one, so yea, the guard will have some play.
www.ekknife.com (not affiliated with the Effingham Company)
 
And really funny coming from a guy with 50 Eks including one RARE NIB Richmond one with leather sheath
 
“Ek, what's an Ek?
Must be junk...”

Ah, funny man …

My Model 5 has a fine satin finish, black guard, black rubber handle slabs, and I bought it in 1991. One of you Ek aficionados want to tell me if the rubber handle slabs are common/rare. It was the only Ek with rubber slabs that the dealer in Australia had at the time.
 
the Richmond #5 micarta, with all original box, papers and wrappings and rare leather sheath, I bought from an old couple for $100... I told them it was worth more, but they insisted that I take it for that price for being straight with them.

Effingham Eks are worth about 90 in paracord, 125 with wood handles, 40 to 50 bucks more for the Richmond specimens (assuming NIB conditions)...
Bark River Eks are worth a pile of burning dog poo although you can always find some Russian kid in California who will buy them and say that they're great even though the blade is bent about 10 degrees off straight...

rubber slabs are indeed very rare and they were made with divers in mind. I think Effingham was making them as one of their occasional special runs
I have seen one that's all black, black guard and black slab handles... I would value that one at about 175 to 225 although demand is low.

Note, values in US dollars.
 
Black metal guard, black rubber handle slabs, and black fasteners.

I have no idea if it is brass or steel under the black powder coating on the guard.
 
“rubber slabs are indeed very rare and they were made with divers in mind...
I have seen one that's all black, black guard and black slab handles... I would value that one at about 175 although demand is low.”

That’s my Ek, and it’s mint. Thanks for the info.
 
It has a black leather sheath (with two Velcro fasteners) wrapped in cord, and most of the writing on the back of the sheath seems to be under the cord. I don’t really want to remove the cord to read the writing.
 
You might have a Richmond knife as not many Effingham knives came with leather sheaths, in which case it would be rarer than hens teeth and worth even more...

any printing on the knife itself? what kind of box did it come in? was it black with yellow print or solid black or solid white?
 
Seeing as I bought the knife new in 1991 I’ve assumed that it was made in Richmond.

The box is black with yellow writing.

There is no stamp (for location of manufacture) on the back of the blade. The normal Ek logo is on the front of the blade.

The dealer I bought it off of was the first and only Ek dealer in Australia, and it seemed like they had gone out of their way to give him some pretty nifty stock. My Ek was the third he had sold since he became the agent in 1991.
 
Pre-Effinghams usually lacked indications as to location of manufacture.
and the purchase date proves it...
you got a very very rare ek with an even rarer sheath...
don't store the knife in the sheath and use neutral shoe polish on the sheath to preserve it.
 
Thank you for the extra information.

The sheath is also mint. A friend of mine (who is a saddler) coated it with some very expensive leather sealant years ago, and the sheath still looks and feels brand new.

The rubber slabs feel really good in hand.

I think the only reason the knife never became a user is because I already had my CRK Shadow 7”, and I was used to beating on that.
 
Back to the first post in the thread...

If you undid the wrapping, you would find two layers of paracord starting at the butt end with end of the cord threaded into two holes in the tang , held in place with a short piece of thin masking tape. If you were to remove the cord, you could slide the flat guard right off the handle. You can't do that with the brass guard as there's a protrusion in the handle that pins the guard in place. If the loose guard bothers you, you can rewrap the handle, paying extra attention to the area close to the guard. Also, remember that paracord shrinks after it gets wet so that you may have to re-adjust your wrapping after it gets wet, or preshrink the cord before you wrap.

The sheath is heavy nylon and has a thin plastic lining similar to bubble-wrap plastic. Almost every sheath I have from Effingham has a plastic liner that's already cracked especially near the mouth of the sheath. I never did like that sheath as it was too damn tight for the #5 and not particularly secure with the velcro closure. When I go into the field, I use a generic Marine Combat/Utility Knife sheath or a Blackhawk sheath. As for the value, NIB should fetch about $90 USD
 
djolney said:
Thank you for the extra information.
Click to expand...

There's something inconsistent though...
A black box with yellow print like the one shown below is an BlackJack (Effingham) box...

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Just rang my Dad (the knife and box are still at his house).

The box is all black, with an Ek sticker on the top, and an Ek sticker on the end.

I remembered that it wasn’t all black, but didn’t remember that the non-black areas were stickers.
 
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