My Grandfather's KA-BAR

Syncharmony · Jan 7, 2014

I got into collecting knives earlier this year and recently my dad pulled out a surprise for me. Hidden in a drawer just collecting dust was my grandfather's old scout knife! When I saw that it was a KA-BAR I was floored by how cool that was and the history that is attached to it. I never had a chance to meet my grandfather since he passed years before I was born and this is really the only heirloom that has been passed down to me that was his possession. I find this to be a really cool example of how knife collecting can unite people and be a great thing to share with people you love. It still sharpens up great and is in pretty good condition for such an old knife. I reckon that it was probably purchased sometime in the 20s or 30s!

I was hoping that this community might be able to help me collect some information on the model. Thank you!

Ahk · Jan 8, 2014

Wow what a find, great looking knife. You plan on doing any restorations to it?

Syncharmony · Jan 8, 2014

Ahk said:
Wow what a find, great looking knife. You plan on doing any restorations to it?

I did clean the blade when I got it and sharpened it up, and cleaned out some of the gunk around the handle. I'm sort of on the fence about doing any sort of drastic restoration though since I do like the character it has and the history.

FTR-14c · Jan 8, 2014

That is very cool.
The only thing I would do is apply a little conditioner on the sheath.

gunsil · Jan 9, 2014

Your knife is a model 474, named "Trading Post" in the old "KA-BAR Outdoor Knives" brochures. I can't see the sheath well in the photos but unless it has KA-BAR markings it is not original to the knife. Yours appears to be the smaller one with a 4&1/2" blade, the larger one had a 5&1/2" blade. They were also available with stacked leather handles as model #574. KA-BAR called the material on your handle "fibrelite". I believe yours dates to the early 1930s, it does not appear in the later 1930s catalogs. The knife appears to be in excellent original condition and I would not recommend cleaning, buffing, or the awful "restoring" it. By the way, he may have carried it in the scouts, but it isn't really considered a "scout" knife.

sac troop · Jan 9, 2014

Neat knife. Pretty interesting to have a hunting utility knife made with stainless steel prior to WW2. Not really a common material back then.

gunsil · Jan 9, 2014

Good eyes, sac!! I couldn't see that until you mentioned it. Union Cut Co-KA-BAR made the most early stainless knives of any company I know of. They did offer many of their hunting knives with the stainless option very early on, before the KA-BAR trademark became their main line. Their really early ones were marked "No-stain steel" All of the stainless models are definitely rarer than the same knife in carbon steel.
Sync, if you look at the blade side of the guard is there a model number stamped on the guard? Please don't clean it any further, it is beautiful as it is!!

iwouldhurtafly · Jan 14, 2014

This is really really cool. I have one of my grandfathers old KA-BAR's too, very special blades... Anyways KA-BAR needs to put this model out in some 1095cv, I'd buy that sucker up!

Tallahassee · Jan 24, 2014

Great knife and a great heirloom, congrats.

I wouldn't do a lot of restoration beyond cleaning. Get a new traditional leather sheath to save the old leather, keep it sharp, enjoy.

Yes, wish they'd bring this model back.

sac troop · Jan 25, 2014

gunsil said:
Good eyes, sac!! I couldn't see that until you mentioned it. Union Cut Co-KA-BAR made the most early stainless knives of any company I know of. They did offer many of their hunting knives with the stainless option very early on, before the KA-BAR trademark became their main line. Their really early ones were marked "No-stain steel" All of the stainless models are definitely rarer than the same knife in carbon steel.
Sync, if you look at the blade side of the guard is there a model number stamped on the guard? Please don't clean it any further, it is beautiful as it is!!

I've got to believe that there were some problems with making work/utility knives out of stainless steel back then. Just a guess here on my part but I'm betting that getting a good temper on them might have been an issue. We really don't see much in the way of stainless blades at all before the 60's. I know that by then the variety of stainless steels had increased a good bit. IMHO I don't think Union Cutlery would have marketed a knife they didn't feel would represent the company's name well. I see that at least as early as the 1930's many American knife makers offered (chrome plated) versions of some of their knives as a solution to fighting corrosion. IMHO I feel like these makers would have found stainless to be a better choice if they were confident of producing a product that would hold an acceptable edge, rather than the extra expense of plating the blades.

gunsil · Jan 28, 2014

I think that many people didn't like the early stainless knives because they were harder to sharpen for a good edge, and they didn't keep the edge as well as carbon steel. As you said, hard to get a good hardness and temper. Remington only made one hunting knife model in stainless, Kinfolks only one, and Case only one before WW2. Case was the most prolific maker of the chrome plated blades, but I think that the cost of chroming carbon steel was actually less than the cost of stainless steel since their chromed knives were cheaper than the stainless models. Union Cut Co pre-ww2 hunting knives cost about a dollar more than the same model in carbon steel. As a collector of early American made hunting knives I value the stainless models highly since they are comparatively rare. Besides the early Union Cut ones I have marked "No Stain Steel" I have one made by Canton Cut Co. marked "Neva Stain".

tman038 · Jan 28, 2014

wow.. that is a great story man. Congrats on such an awesome piece of your family's history. I'm sure you Grandfather would be proud that you have it. thanks for sharing. :thumbup:

Syncharmony · Jan 28, 2014

gunsil said:
Good eyes, sac!! I couldn't see that until you mentioned it. Union Cut Co-KA-BAR made the most early stainless knives of any company I know of. They did offer many of their hunting knives with the stainless option very early on, before the KA-BAR trademark became their main line. Their really early ones were marked "No-stain steel" All of the stainless models are definitely rarer than the same knife in carbon steel.
Sync, if you look at the blade side of the guard is there a model number stamped on the guard? Please don't clean it any further, it is beautiful as it is!!

Whoops, I lost track of this thread, thanks everyone for the information! I will check tonight if it there is any model number when i get back home from work. I want to say that I didn't notice any before, but I'll let you know.

But yeah, I'm not sure how he actually used it in the Scouts or what the story is there. I'll have to talk to my father and see if he has any additional information regarding that.