http://www.usmilitaryknives.com/okca_1996.htm
Posted to show who made what.
The year is 1942, the fighting on a tiny island in the Pacific named Guadalcanal is the fiercest yet encountered. While the Marines are slugging it out, often hand to hand, the subject of a fighting knife is again brought to the forefront. At this time the only general issue edged weapon is the bayonet. Enter Colonel John M. Davis and Major Howard E. America. These two officers were given the task of designing a knife that would "fill all the demands that could be made upon it, while standardizing a common knife for the Navy and the Marine Corps". A pretty tall order considering the knife was needed right now ! So with this order in hand the two met with various leading knife manufacturers to decide on a plan of action. With the need being immediate it was apparent to all that the knife would have to closely resemble what was being produced at the time, i.e. leather handle, carbon steel blade, leather scabbard etc.. The design settled on was the Marbles Ideal blade pattern made in a 7 1/2 " blade with a flat pommel so it could be used for pounding in tent pegs or other utility chores. The companies chosen for this project were Boker, Camillus, Case, Pal, Robeson, and Union Cutlery. Prototypes were quickly made and issued to some officers and men returning from Guadalcanal for evaluation. The knives were universally accepted by all using them and gained a quick approval in November 1942. Contracts were quickly given to Boker, Camillus, Pal, Robeson, and Union for 1,200,000 knives, Case was left off due to other production commitments for the military. The knife was officially called the Mark II by the Navy and the U.S.M.C. Fighting / Utility knife by the Marine Corps. The original contract stated that the makers name, address and branch of service be stamped into the blade. The government changed this in 1944 for ease of manufacture and stocking as both knives were identical. The contracts given are listed below.
U.S.M.C. U.S.N.
1942-3 Boker 0 50,000
Camillus 150,000 331,600
Pal 100,000 75,000
Robeson 10,000 90,000
Union 350,000 60,000
Both
1944 Camillus 150,000
Robeson 100,000
Union 50,000
1945 Camillus 175,000
For unknown reasons Boker never produced any Mark II's.
The above list is only a list of contracts given as I have not been able to find any valid production figures or numbers received by the government. I do know that production was halted on the 1945 contract at around 67,000 knives. Allowing for Boker not making any and the production halt in 1945, that gives us 1,533,600 produced in 2 1/2 years. In Cole's Book III he states in a letter from Kabar that they produced around 1,000,000 of these knives. If anyone has any information on production figures I would surely appreciate knowing. Several searches from the National Archives and other sources have produced only contract information.
The knives themselves were produced in many variations, (enough to keep me busy looking for many years) and markings. The major design difference is in the pommel attaching method. The first design as Cole refers to as Type 1 is a thick pommel attached to a threaded tang. The makers used different variations on this theme but none were actually strong enough to do the job. Camillus came up with a simple fix which not only made the knife stronger, it also helped to speed up production. The tank was left rectangular and the pommel was attached by a pin driven through both to hold everything in place. All manufacturers eventually switched to this design at some stage in production. This is referred to as the Type II design. Many different blade stampings were used during production owing more to worn out dies then to production changes. I mid 1944 reports from the field showed blades failing at the handle blade junction and it was thought to be from the stamping on the blade. This was quickly overcome by stamping the knives on the guard and not the blade. (This was later proven false in the post war years and blade stamping resumed.) All the knives had a 7" blade, full steel cross guard, stacked leather washer handles with 5 grooves cut into them and a steel pommel. The early blades from Robeson and Union were deeply blued. All others were parkerized. Pal did produce some knives with smooth handles and aluminum pommels, these are thought to be made up of spare parts at the factory when supplies were short. Handle differences can also be found in placement of thick and thin fiber washers at the guard and pommel ends.
