Franken-BAR

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gunsil

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Jan 9, 2013
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Got this oddball recently. The blade is from a KA-BAR "polished commando" but it has been shortened by removing the ricasso. The pommel is a round hole thick one from an early MK2, and the handle piece is a KA-BAR hunting knife one from the 40s era which has had a lot of leather washers added to make up the extra long handle area. This is marked Sanssouci DR on the guard which was a mark used by Weske of Sandusky, OH, a company that bought a whole lot of surplus WW2 knife parts and assembled them from 1946-1952. The guard may be Weske made since it is not the same size as a commando or MK2 guard.DSCN3530.JPG DSCN3531.JPG DSCN3532.JPG
 
Now that's is pretty cool. Is that a tack weld on the front guard to blade? Or camera reflection?
 
Not sure what you're seeing but the guard is free, no welding and the guard does wiggle a little.
 
That is an interesting knife. I remember reading about what became of some of the surplus knives and parts after the war (that didn't go on to be used in 1-2 other wars). It is great to see an example of what some of these became on the civilian market.
 
Weske bought a lot of parts from different companies so there are many variations of WW2 looking knives with the Sanssouci DR mark that have been fooling collectors for years. The once highly sought after "KA-BAR UDT" knives with MK2 blades and longer smooth handles were actually Weske post war products and misidentified in early books on US military knives. I think all WW2 issue MK2s were sold off as surplus after Korea since I used to buy them in the army-navy store for two bucks each in around 1960 but I am not sure if they sold all of them or just many thousands of them. Surplus stores had barrels of them in used to mint condition. Maybe sac troop has more info on how many were sold or kept in reserve.
 
gunsil said:
Weske bought a lot of parts from different companies so there are many variations of WW2 looking knives with the Sanssouci DR mark that have been fooling collectors for years. The once highly sought after "KA-BAR UDT" knives with MK2 blades and longer smooth handles were actually Weske post war products and misidentified in early books on US military knives. I think all WW2 issue MK2s were sold off as surplus after Korea since I used to buy them in the army-navy store for two bucks each in around 1960 but I am not sure if they sold all of them or just many thousands of them. Surplus stores had barrels of them in used to mint condition. Maybe sac troop has more info on how many were sold or kept in reserve.
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Before I worked at KA-BAR I spent a number of years working at a World War II Museum. Folks use to come in and tell me about items they would buy in Army-Navy Surplus Stores in the years after the war for pennies. A guy brought a German paratrooper helmet in once and said he paid $5 for it in the early 1950s and wore it to ride his bike as a kid. That helmet today would buy a modest car. Always enjoy seeing old treasures.
 
When somebody has a ww2 item with "battle scars". They always say if only it could talk.

I always hear in my head "I spent the war packed away in cosmoline, was sold as surplus after the war to a six year old kid, who beat the snot out of me, left me in the rain, then sold me for 100 times what he paid for me.". Lol.
 
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