ID Knife Found At Estate Sale

[AngelaTC]

Thanks in advance for your help. As the title says, I bought a box of knives at an estate sale. This one I can't find any markings on. The handle is made of clear plastic rings. It looks green because the inner rod is ''patina-ed.'' Any hints on maker or age most appreciated.

 

[Sidehill Gouger]

Rehandled something, maybe USN MK-1

 

[kvaughn]

"Theatre" knife?---KV

 

[jstrange]

I don’t know what it is, but it’s definitely a cool knife with a lot of history.

 

[afishhunter]

Most likely a "Theater Knife". USN Mk-1 as mentioned above, is as good a guess as any. A lot of those were re-handled during the war.
The "Clear Plastic rings" could be from an aircraft canopy.
Whatever it is, it looks like a decent knife with quite a bit of life left.

 

[skyhorse]

"Theatre" knife?---KV

That's what it looks like with the lucite handle that was popular back then.

 

[eisman]

The green is verdigris which is a result of a chemical reaction between the tanned leather and the brass. The only way to get rid of it is either melt it out with a lot of hot water and soap, disassemble the knife and clean it, or possibly with an ultrasonic cleaner. Knives should not be stored in leather sheaths.

 

[The Whip]

World War II theater-made knives with Plexiglass handles definitely exist and can be worth some money to the right collector. A few examples:

The problem is, there are a lot of fakes in the militaria market. Without provenance and/or documentation, you have no way of knowing when your knife was made.

Perhaps the best you can do is try to get hold of the authors of this book to see if they can help.

Identifying an old, unmarked, handmade knife is extremely difficult. Yours seems very well constructed, though, particularly the sheath. Maybe someone in Bernard Levine's Knife Collecting & Identification subforum has seen similar work. Good luck!


-Steve

 

[cbach8tw]

World War II theater-made knives with Plexiglass handles definitely exist and can be worth some money to the right collector. A few examples:

The problem is, there are a lot of fakes in the militaria market. Without provenance and/or documentation, you have no way of knowing when your knife was made.

Perhaps the best you can do is try to get hold of the authors of this book to see if they can help.

Identifying an old, unmarked, handmade knife is extremely difficult. Yours seems very well constructed, though, particularly the sheath. Maybe someone in Bernard Levine's Knife Collecting & Identification subforum has seen similar work. Good luck!


-Steve

I have that book, a good one.

 

[abcdef]

Good looking specimen.

 

[Black Oak Bladeworks]

Very cool Knife! I can't help with Id or authenticity but that is an interesting find either way.

 

[AngelaTC]

Thanks so much for the information. I know absolutely nothing about knives, so now I am a little smarter. I do know the original owner was a WWII vet but most of the other knives in the collection were from India, one is from Germany and some are not marked at all. If '' theater'' means Pacific theater then this seems to be an outlier in the collection.

 

[afishhunter]

"Theater" would be anywhere there was fighting.

 

[brownshoe]

Every knife that looks like a theater knife is identified as one. In the 70s I worked for a small town and the guys in the water department would make "theater knives" in their down time using scrap and found materials. At that time they didn't know it was a theater knife, they just thought they were cool.