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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/
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Kabar ID for new collector
- Thread starter SonHouse
- Start date
Your knife is a model 594. The KA-BAR over OLEAN, NY stamp was used during WW2 but since your knife has an aluminum pommel and aluminum was not allowed for civilian use during the war your knife was likely made between late 1945 and sometime in late 1947 or early 1948 since that was about when the mark was changed to KA-BAR over USA. It is a civilian hunting knife, not a military knife as they are often called on ebay. The model 594 is first seen in folder (catalog) #36 which was published circa 1936 so it is not an early model. The pre war ones will have the Union Cut Co stamp on the back ricasso. Your knife is in very nice condition and the sheath looks original although it does look like the pommel nut has been tightened over time. The folders show finger grooves in the leather handle but this may be because the folders are pre-WW2 and later ones had no grooves. I have no wartime or 1946 or 47 catalogs or folders to confirm this but it is logical. If anybody does have wartime or early post war folders, catalogs, or price lists please contact me as I would like copies or originals for my library.
Don't believe there will be any catalogs from any U.S. manufactures in 43,44. A few 42 dated examples. Basically the consumer market place for knives dried up in 1942 when the knife companies switched over to production for the war effort. Parts of it were voluntary other parts were special orders and acts past by Congress.
Companies with stocks of materials that became restricted were still able to use the stocks on hand, just couldn't order any more. The restriction on brass was at least partly lifted by 1944. I'm not sure if restrictions on aluminum were lifted before the war ended, my impression is probably not.
Camillus produced a catalog for post war knives just a few months after the war ended, Cat.#46, and used it thru 47 with the addition of an addendum page. In spite of the catalog number the catalog was being distributed by November at the latest in 1945.
I have seen a knife that is considered an example of a WW2 production of a knife that was likely part of the Navy Mark 1 procurement, which is very similar to this one in the OP. Blade type, (saber ground w/ fuller), length and markings are the same.
Differences are:
Blued finish
Steel half guard.
Black/red/black spacers, only at the very ends of the stacked leather.
Wood pommel w/steel butt cap.
War production records are at best spotty and incomplete. Leaves a lot of room for just conjecture and pure speculation. Unfortunately there's a lot of that out there.
I'm aware that Union Cutlery moved towards just marking their knives with their brand name KA-BAR years before they officially changed their name over to KA-BAR, but guys like gunsil and Z would have a much better handle on that chronology than I would.
Companies with stocks of materials that became restricted were still able to use the stocks on hand, just couldn't order any more. The restriction on brass was at least partly lifted by 1944. I'm not sure if restrictions on aluminum were lifted before the war ended, my impression is probably not.
Camillus produced a catalog for post war knives just a few months after the war ended, Cat.#46, and used it thru 47 with the addition of an addendum page. In spite of the catalog number the catalog was being distributed by November at the latest in 1945.
I have seen a knife that is considered an example of a WW2 production of a knife that was likely part of the Navy Mark 1 procurement, which is very similar to this one in the OP. Blade type, (saber ground w/ fuller), length and markings are the same.
Differences are:
Blued finish
Steel half guard.
Black/red/black spacers, only at the very ends of the stacked leather.
Wood pommel w/steel butt cap.
War production records are at best spotty and incomplete. Leaves a lot of room for just conjecture and pure speculation. Unfortunately there's a lot of that out there.
I'm aware that Union Cutlery moved towards just marking their knives with their brand name KA-BAR years before they officially changed their name over to KA-BAR, but guys like gunsil and Z would have a much better handle on that chronology than I would.
Sac, Union Cut made plenty of hunting and pocket knives for the civilian market during WW2, so I do believe at least catalog supplements and price lists were published. Dealers would have to have at least price lists which are very rare from any company but somebody may have some somewhere. I have only acquired three price lists from Union Cut in 30 years of looking, they are RARE, but I am sure there are more out there. I do have the entire production of pre-war hunting knife folders, there weren't many and it took years of searching and trading to get them. The wood pommel/steel butt cap hunters are all WW2 production for the civilian market and there are also stag and celluloid handled versions known that were made for the wartime civilian market.
Your knife is a model 594. The KA-BAR over OLEAN, NY stamp was used during WW2 but since your knife has an aluminum pommel and aluminum was not allowed for civilian use during the war your knife was likely made between late 1945 and sometime in late 1947 or early 1948 since that was about when the mark was changed to KA-BAR over USA. It is a civilian hunting knife, not a military knife as they are often called on ebay. The model 594 is first seen in folder (catalog) #36 which was published circa 1936 so it is not an early model. The pre war ones will have the Union Cut Co stamp on the back ricasso. Your knife is in very nice condition and the sheath looks original although it does look like the pommel nut has been tightened over time. The folders show finger grooves in the leather handle but this may be because the folders are pre-WW2 and later ones had no grooves. I have no wartime or 1946 or 47 catalogs or folders to confirm this but it is logical. If anybody does have wartime or early post war folders, catalogs, or price lists please contact me as I would like copies or originals for my library.
Thanks so much! That's very neat information. I see you are in the Lower Hudson Valley; I'm in Southern Ulster County. Can you recommend someone I can bring my collector's knives to to be professionally sharpened? I don't trust myself yet not to ruin the blade by sharpening it myself. A chisel or a plane iron I can sharpen, but for some reason knives intimidate me.
Hi Son, you the bluesman by the same name?? (LOL) I have a rather extensive collection of antique hunting and pocket knives but have never considered sharpening any of them since they are pretty much collector knives rather than user knives. I am down in Rockland county.