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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Mid '90's 1217
- Thread starter zanussi01
- Start date
NapalmCheese
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I have one from the same era, but I or my dad must have oiled the bejeebus out of it because the handle and sheath are very dark brown.
Story time!
So, my dad having been in the Air Force for a number of years working at an air base in Japan during the Vietnam War saw lots of cool guys wearing and carrying Mk2 knives. He wanted one, he traded around and eventually got one and kept that knife with him through his service. He left the Air Force and went to pharmacy school, then joined the Navy. Eventually, as a Navy pharmacist he decided he wanted to move on to the reserves, and specifically decided he wanted to be attached to a Marine Corps unit as a Corpsman. As a Corpsman he did his 1 weekend a month and 2 weeks a year, and during those two weeks worked with the reserve STA platoon carrying his Mk2 on his deuce gear. When he wasn't out with the Marines he kept that Mk2 under the seat of the family car.
We all went to the movies one evening and, upon coming back, found the car broken into. The registration and the knife were stolen.
Understanding that a Marine isn't a Marine without his Kabar (even if my dad was a Corpsman and therefore technically not a Marine) I bought him a brand new USMC Kabar for his birthday. I don't know if he didn't like the sheath (he had mentioned patching up a young marine who fell and stabbed himself through the sheath in HI before) or if it was just too new and pretty for him to take, but he never took it into the field.
Noticing that I hunted for another Mk2. I found one in good shape in a surplus store in Moss Landing, CA and snapped it up for $80 bucks. I sent it to him and never asked if he used it. He eventually retired from the Navy, joined the Coast Guard Auxiliary, wrote a fictional book vaguely about his life with a lot of fun embellishments and finally passed away. Upon going through his things I found the brand new looking (albeit dark colored) Kabar stored alongside the Mk2. The Mk2 however had obviously tape marks from his taping it to his deuce gear, and his last name written on the scabbard in what looks like government issued ball point black ink.
The Mk2 sits in my safe, the Kabar in a drawer with most of my other knives. I don't have a use for either, but I keep them both.
Story time!
So, my dad having been in the Air Force for a number of years working at an air base in Japan during the Vietnam War saw lots of cool guys wearing and carrying Mk2 knives. He wanted one, he traded around and eventually got one and kept that knife with him through his service. He left the Air Force and went to pharmacy school, then joined the Navy. Eventually, as a Navy pharmacist he decided he wanted to move on to the reserves, and specifically decided he wanted to be attached to a Marine Corps unit as a Corpsman. As a Corpsman he did his 1 weekend a month and 2 weeks a year, and during those two weeks worked with the reserve STA platoon carrying his Mk2 on his deuce gear. When he wasn't out with the Marines he kept that Mk2 under the seat of the family car.
We all went to the movies one evening and, upon coming back, found the car broken into. The registration and the knife were stolen.
Understanding that a Marine isn't a Marine without his Kabar (even if my dad was a Corpsman and therefore technically not a Marine) I bought him a brand new USMC Kabar for his birthday. I don't know if he didn't like the sheath (he had mentioned patching up a young marine who fell and stabbed himself through the sheath in HI before) or if it was just too new and pretty for him to take, but he never took it into the field.
Noticing that I hunted for another Mk2. I found one in good shape in a surplus store in Moss Landing, CA and snapped it up for $80 bucks. I sent it to him and never asked if he used it. He eventually retired from the Navy, joined the Coast Guard Auxiliary, wrote a fictional book vaguely about his life with a lot of fun embellishments and finally passed away. Upon going through his things I found the brand new looking (albeit dark colored) Kabar stored alongside the Mk2. The Mk2 however had obviously tape marks from his taping it to his deuce gear, and his last name written on the scabbard in what looks like government issued ball point black ink.
The Mk2 sits in my safe, the Kabar in a drawer with most of my other knives. I don't have a use for either, but I keep them both.
Cool story but what I don't understand is guys carrying MK2s in Vietnam since KA-BAR didn't make any after 1945 and started re-making them in 1976 as a commemorative model, and Camillus stopped in 1945 also and began re-making them in 1974 by which time we were almost all out of Vietnam. There have been no KA-BARs issued to troops in Nam or since. A few guys did have WW2 MK2s but not many and they weren't issued to them, they were handed down or privately purchased surplus WW2 knives.
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Utica, Connetta and Camillus started making 1219C2s/USN-MK2s in the early 1960s, all with leather sheaths, all without a branch marking..
No one made them during the 1950s as the government still had thousands in stock and issued them out as needed. Any knife still in the system could have had one of the fiberglass sheaths issued with it as they were still in the system as well.
No one made them during the 1950s as the government still had thousands in stock and issued them out as needed. Any knife still in the system could have had one of the fiberglass sheaths issued with it as they were still in the system as well.
NapalmCheese
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Thus the trading around until he eventually got one!
NapalmCheese
Basic Member
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2006
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I wish I remembered who made his original, but I do not. The one I ended up getting for him (and now have) is a guard marked Camillus from (IIRC) '44-'45 with a NORD-4723 scabbard. I didn't know it when I bought it, but have since learned more about these knives.
I prefer the more oval handle of the Kabar to be honest, though I think I like the higher grind of the original compared to the 90's version.
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Mr. Trzaska is the source of my information... The following excerpt is from his article "The Post-WW2 MK2 Knife"
"Our next change is dated 4/11/62 and is really a minor point in the drawing. Seems the tang on the drawing is shown as threaded, a left over from the old World War Two drawings. The tang is rectangular as is the cutout in the butt cap but it was to be threaded anyway. Most likely just an oversight but it was corrected by the Camillus Cutlery Co. The guard was also changed to a flat piece, foregoing the curved guard invented to prevent snagging on vines and brush, and so approved as MIL-K-20277b Amendment 2. This brings us to the Camillus production period. Camillus submitted a sample of the new pattern and the drawing updates on 3/25/62. The knife was approved and placed into production. The Camillus knife followed the same form of using a 1095 steel blade, Rockwell from 55 to 58, 1020 steel for the guard, pin and butt and oven dried but now treated leather washers for the handle. All parts were to be Parkerized without exception. Camillus purchased the leather washers from Standard Washer and Materials Inc. marked only as “Specially Treated. The treatment, under specification of O-L-164 was strictly a leather treatment to prevent jungle rot of the handle and scabbard having a minimum of 0.2 and 0.5 percent paranitrophenol. As an added benefit the knives were a very dark brown, today known as “Ox-Blood" by collectors. Those early Vietnam period knives as made by Camillus and Utica have a red tint to them when viewed up close and in proper lighting."
01 FEB 1974 is when Camillus dropped the "NY" from their MK2 stamp, also per the same article.
"Our next change is dated 4/11/62 and is really a minor point in the drawing. Seems the tang on the drawing is shown as threaded, a left over from the old World War Two drawings. The tang is rectangular as is the cutout in the butt cap but it was to be threaded anyway. Most likely just an oversight but it was corrected by the Camillus Cutlery Co. The guard was also changed to a flat piece, foregoing the curved guard invented to prevent snagging on vines and brush, and so approved as MIL-K-20277b Amendment 2. This brings us to the Camillus production period. Camillus submitted a sample of the new pattern and the drawing updates on 3/25/62. The knife was approved and placed into production. The Camillus knife followed the same form of using a 1095 steel blade, Rockwell from 55 to 58, 1020 steel for the guard, pin and butt and oven dried but now treated leather washers for the handle. All parts were to be Parkerized without exception. Camillus purchased the leather washers from Standard Washer and Materials Inc. marked only as “Specially Treated. The treatment, under specification of O-L-164 was strictly a leather treatment to prevent jungle rot of the handle and scabbard having a minimum of 0.2 and 0.5 percent paranitrophenol. As an added benefit the knives were a very dark brown, today known as “Ox-Blood" by collectors. Those early Vietnam period knives as made by Camillus and Utica have a red tint to them when viewed up close and in proper lighting."
01 FEB 1974 is when Camillus dropped the "NY" from their MK2 stamp, also per the same article.
NapalmCheese
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My early/mid 90's Kabar with it's Camillus Mk2 cousin:
