Help Identifying a Knife

[bdipalma]

My father recently gave me a knife. He has no information about it other then it is over 60 years old. He got the knife from his father. While living in New York.
I have a digital picture of the knife. If you email me at bdipalma@citicom.com I can email you the picture.
The information that I know about it is;
The Blade is 12 inches, Fixed
The whole length is 17 inches
The handle appears to be a brown leather capped on the end with a brass piece and a brass blade guard on the other side of the handle.
There are some letters stamped in the base of the blade but I can only get a partial reading on them. The writing is in 3 lines. The left side of the lettering has worn away, the following is what is readable;
LINS &
RTFOR
No. 17

I have cleaned the knife and want to display it in my house. I would like any type of information that you might know about this. If you have no information, can you direct me in the right direction as to where I may possibly find some about it.

 

[not2sharp]

It sounds like a Collins model 18 survival bowie knife, also sometimes called a V-44. A version of this knife was made by Western as their model W-49.

Or, perhaps an older one like this:

n2s

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Welcome to Bladeforums!

A good place for questions like this is The Bernard Levine Knife Collecting and Identification Forum.

 

[bdipalma]

I hope this is some help
Thanks, Bob