Grandpa's war knife

[OldKnife007]

I enjoy putting stacked leather handles on knives, and recently had a woman bring me an old WW2 issue Ka-bar that had belonged to her father. He was a Marine, had been in combat in the Pacific. He had given it to the woman's son before he died. She wondered if anything could be done. Yes, it could. A few years ago I posted in the 'other' main knife forum on the web, and very fine knife guy Mike Steward posted some helpful photos.

I was honored to rebuild this old fighting/utility. Was able to use the original guard and pommel. No charge on this one.

 

[powernoodle]

Nice work. Thats what it probably looked like when grandpa got his hands on it at age 19. Wish that thing could talk. I like keeping things original, but you can see that this one was falling apart, so a good restoration job certainly was in order.

 

[Gerry.GEG]

Very nice and a great thing you did to keep a piece of history alive.

Well done sir.

 

[willis]

That is awesome OK007,both the finished product and the gratis work.

 

[stoffi]

Nice work, but doesn't it decrease in value when you refurbish old stuff?

 

[Esav Benyamin]

No, it cannot decrease in value when its primary value is as a family keepsake.
What monetary value would a common knife in terrible condition have to lose?

 

[midnight flyer]

Nice work. Thats what it probably looked like when grandpa got his hands on it at age 19. Wish that thing could talk. I like keeping things original, but you can see that this one was falling apart, so a good restoration job certainly was in order.

No kidding. And the best part of the restore is that now it has a new life. Hopefully someone will be passing that down to another generation saying "you know, your great grandfather carried this in WWII...."

Nice job!

Robert

 

[aephilli]

Wouldn't happen to have a link to those photos so I might be able to fix mine, would you?

 

[aephilli]

double post

 

[ChapmanPreferred]

Really nice work.