Military knife ID?

scdub

Gold Member
Joined
May 29, 2004
Messages
2,940
Hello All,

A friend of mine just asked if I can refurbish this knife.

It’s in decent shape except for the rust/sheath. Handle is tight and blade is mostly undamaged so I’m going to work on it a bit.

I’m curious if anyone here can identify it.

There’s no maker’s mark visible. Also there are strange (to me) brown spacers on either side of that looks like wood grain plastic of some sort that might help in identification…

Thanks!
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Could be a Ka-bar, and the "plastic" may be bakelite. Any markings on the guard? Check this out...in post 7 it mentions a version without fullers:

 
Helluva job!! Must have spent some serious time on it. That blade was on the rough side. Goes to show what a little/lot of elbow grease can accomplish.
 
Thanks all!

Very nice indeed!

How did you clean it up? I'm glad you didn't make it *too clean* if you know what I mean. You left the character.

I started off with some hot distilled vinegar, (kept the handle dry) which usually eats most of the rust off of carbon steel blades (it eats the steel too - just more slowly). Anyway on this knife the rust was pretty deep so I ended up doing several vinegar soaks along with some wire brushing, wire brush Dremel work, and even some sanding in areas. The vinegar gave the patina, although it turned the guard and pommel slightly different colors. Then I cleaned the handle with a damp/soapy cloth, dried it in the sun, then used a heat gun to melt some mink oil into the leather. Let that sit then used a brass brush to fluff up the leather (it started off rock hard - now it feels pretty good although still pretty stiff).
The EDGE was a bear because there was so much pitting, and I left some pits in the bevel just to preserve as much material as possible.
Lastly finished everything off with a coat of Renn Wax.

Helluva job!! Must have spent some serious time on it. That blade was on the rough side. Goes to show what a little/lot of elbow grease can accomplish.
Yeah it took quite awhile longer than I expected - the rust was pretty deep. I probably put about 6-8 hours in on it over several weeks. Didn’t want to rush anything and screw it up… :)
 
Seeing it made me recall the World War 2 Camillus knife a friend of my father gave me when I was around 11 years old. Bayo type that fit on a Garand I believe. Had it for years sheath and all. Not thinking let a friend take it to Nam. Afraid still sittin in a rice paddy over there. Grrrrr My own stupidity. At least still got my dad's bringback 98k and the NSKK dagger he brought back.
 
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