Need advice-ID'ing knife/buying

just-a-dumb-girl · Feb 2, 2000

Hey fellas,
I'm trying to be sneaky and buy my husband a knife for his B'day(in April).His father was a Marine in the late sixties-early seventies and he carried a Kabar,which has since been stolen.I would like to find one like it, but I cannot seem to find the right one.Hubby says he remembers it to be black handled,serrated on the top part of the blade(partly) and had some sort of eyelet thing on the butt(is that the right word?)for attaching a lanyard.I can find kabars in plenty, but none of them fit this description.have any of you seen anything like this?And if so, could you guide me to a name and possibly a source?Also, what should a dumb girl know before buying a knife like this?I don't want to get taken.Thanks for any help you can give

Wow!Look at all the posts!Thanks y'all, I really appreciate it.Well, the general consensus seems to be Camillus, and I agree about the sentiment.I may never find the exact knife, the way it looks.I even started wondering if perhaps his father might have purchased this knife while in Viet Nam.So I think I'll take your advice and get a nice Camillus Marine Fighting Knife.Thanks for the help and the kind words

[This message has been edited by just-a-dumb-girl (edited 02-03-2000).]

[This message has been edited by just-a-dumb-girl (edited 02-03-2000).]

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brian w edginton · Feb 2, 2000

Might have been a Pilot Survival knife.
Still made by Camillus....try on the Camillus forum. Lots of good help, there.

BTW.....if you WERE dumb, you wouldn't have posted here

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BrianWE

If I am a figment of your imagination, stop it..PLEASE

[This message has been edited by brian w edginton (edited 02-02-2000).]

brian w edginton · Feb 2, 2000

Then, again, it might have been a Randall 14 or 15
see http://www.randallknives.com/military.html

the pictured knives don't have sawteeth but it is an option.
Military men are not, always, knife experts and "KaBar " could have been a generic term for fixed blades in some units.
Lotsa luck....hope it wasn't a Randall. It will COST.

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BrianWE

If I am a figment of your imagination, stop it..PLEASE

IUBI · Feb 2, 2000

its probably a randall.
that sucks that it got stolen...i bet he stabbed some pesky gooks with it. Worthy F'ing adversaries!

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And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold the great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads...And His tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth; and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

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brian w edginton · Feb 2, 2000

Not a Tops.....not in the 60s or 70s.
We are talking the Dark Ages in knife terms.

The "Tops" reference is in relation to something editted out of the previous post...either that or I am hallucinating again.

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BrianWE

If I am a figment of your imagination, stop it..PLEASE

[This message has been edited by brian w edginton (edited 02-02-2000).]

Mike L. · Feb 2, 2000

Your husband is a lucky man, to have a wife who would a: buy him a knife, and b: go to the trouble to research it the way you have.

I would suggest buying him a nice Camillus Marine fighting knife...the one with the USMC emblem stamped on the sheath. He should be very happy. I know that I would be happy with such a present from my lady.

--Mike L.

PhilL · Feb 2, 2000

Young lady,
Your husband is a lucky guy, and I want to know what varmit called you dumb? We don't like to have our women friends insulted like that.

IUBI, I hope he wasn't stabbing Nazi's in the 60's and 70's, I think we had kissed and made up by then.

[This message has been edited by PhilL (edited 02-02-2000).]

RenFieLd · Feb 2, 2000

lol PhilL, About the Nazi comment.
Andrew

PhilL · Feb 2, 2000

Andrew,
I'm kicking myself, I should have just taken the bet!

and this nice girl is calling herself dumb, if she wants to see dumb, I'll show her DUMB!

Jeff Clark · Feb 2, 2000

Since World War II a lot of guys in the military call almost any single-edged military sheath knife a "Kabar". Even the Marine Corp Fighting Knife that fits that name were made by many companies. One of the best companies is Camillus.

I don't recall any true Kabar knives of that era with a saw-back. That does sound like the smaller Pilot's Survival Knife which also had a sharpening stone in the sheath. Many cheaper "survival knives" came out at that time which you can't find, and wouldn't want to give at this time.

A couple options come to mind. One is to get one of the Specially Marked Vietnam Memorial Kabars. I ran across some on the ebay internet auction site today. Go to:

www.ebay.com

At the top of the page select "search"
Scroll down to box: "By Item Number"
and type: 247162610 in box
then select "search"
It will get you to the item.

There are other knives that are better than any of the Kabars that might make a nice gift. A great choice would be a Fallkniven A1 Survival knife. This is made in Japan for a Swedish company out of a particularly good steel. The Swedish company went to Japan for the work, because they couldn't get the quality and materials they wanted in Europe. You can find this type of knife at a discount at discount knives. Select the following link:

http://www.discountknives.com/Fallkniven/fallkniven.html

You can find the Camillus brand versions of the Marine Combat knife at cumberland knives. Select the link below and when you get to the Cumberland page select Camillus from the left-hand pane. Then scroll down to products CM-5684, CM-5685, and CM-5733. The 5733 is the smaller pilots survival knife with a saw-back blade. The 5684 has all the right colors--black on black. The 5685 has a brown grip.

http://www.cumberlandknives.com/catalog-main.htm

You also asked what to beware of. For a gift you want a good name brand. NOT SOMETHING ADVERTISED ON TV. Ka-Bar or Camillus brands would be your first bet. If you buy on the internet you'll save up to 50% on the price. You won't find the exact same models, but Cold Steel knives makes good products for a good price. If you get the ones with the black blades ("Carbon V" alloy) they are made in the US by someone like Camillus--the shiny ones are OK, but made in Asia which may not fit your desire.

You can get actual Vietnam era knives on the ebay online auction site. Just search for something like "vietnam * knife" and many will be found on any given day. Maybe the "real thing" would have appeal even if it had some wear and tear. (note the asterisk '*' between vietnam and knife).

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brian w edginton · Feb 2, 2000

I think some of you blokes are missing the point.
The lady wants to give her partner a knife like his dad had.
We could go on into several pages of suggestions naming our favorite knives.
We are talking SENTIMENT here.
And, dare I say it : love.

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BrianWE

If I am a figment of your imagination, stop it..PLEASE

Jeff Clark · Feb 2, 2000

Brian,

I doubt that the knife was a Randall, I don't think anyone would have called a Randall a "Kabar". They did make some slightly cheaper Randalls during that era with German blades. Even those cost well above $100.00 and would not be thought of as Kabars. There was a model called something like the Attack-Survival with a saw-back and a micarta handle. There was another called something like the Survival model with a hollow handle and saw back.

I would get real sentamental if my wife gave me a Randall. It would cost several hundred dollars.

Julie Evans · Feb 2, 2000

Being a Nam vet I have first hand experience on the knives that were there. What you are describing is a Pilots Survival Knife. Its not as large as a KaBar and the leather handles start out brown and darken to almost black with use/age. Ontario still makes that knife, its their model 499, they run about $40. I think you'd be better off with a KaBar, after all you can't replace the sentiment and its a better knife for about the same price.

Jake OOPS didn't change back after Julie used PC

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brian w edginton · Feb 2, 2000

No worries, Jeff.

Was just thinking of the black handled, sawback knives with thong holes in the 60s and 70s.
My original suggestion was the Pilot survival knife...the handles did turn black but I don't know about the thonghole.
Don't know of a "real" KaBar that met all of the criteria, either.
And, like I said, lots of troops didn't know a decent knife from a hole in the ground.
But there must have been a few that were not TOPS or Fallkniven, etc.

Damn !.....how about a Gerber Mk 2 ?

Bet the lady is even more confused.

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BrianWE

If I am a figment of your imagination, stop it..PLEASE

Jake Evans · Feb 2, 2000

Hell Brian, looks like we had the same idea at the same time, sorry I posted under Julie's name

Jake

JoHnYKwSt · Feb 2, 2000

Brian:

And, dare I say it : love.

LOL Brian! That was too funny.

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Johnny
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brian w edginton · Feb 2, 2000

Johnny
you are SUCH a cynic !

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BrianWE

If I am a figment of your imagination, stop it..PLEASE

not2sharp · Feb 3, 2000

I would suggest we ask more questions before we continue to guess at this.

There where some Ka-bar like knives available during the 60s with sawbacks. Silvey shows a picture of one on page 122 of his "Knives of the United States Military in Vietnam." It does not, however, appear to have a lanyard hole in the handle.

I curious about the "eyelet." Did the knife have a hole in the handle, Or, do you mean some kind of ring on the butt?

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brian w edginton · Feb 3, 2000

Just reread the original post...the enquirer has edited it. It seems she is going with the consensus and is getting a Camillus USMC.
BlafeForums has done it again

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BrianWE

If I am a figment of your imagination, stop it..PLEASE