Need help pinning down age of Ka-Bar

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BladeRunner94

Joined
Oct 14, 2013
Messages
2
Hey guys, new to the forum here. i recently was given what seems to be an older ka-bar. the only reason i think its older is because the pommel is not pinned, and the blade is not powder coated, but has a dark patina.maybe you guys can set me straight:) hopefully the pictures help!

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If I remember correctly, mid/late 43 to early 44

The first version had a thick (3/8") pommel with a ROUND peened tang.

Version 2 had a square peened thick tang. Then came the thin pinned models.

Are you sure it's not pinned from only 1 side (the other 1 not pictured)? The reason I ask is that the square peened versions I've seen didn't have such a clean tang square. One of the changes in the pinned version was from pinned all the way through to only 3/4 pinned (can only see a pin on 1 side).
 
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there is no pin at all, and i too found it strange how clean the tang square was, so this would be a wwii huh? thanks so much for your input!
 
Beautiful knife......

I do love the old ones.

Moose
 
Bladerunner - great old knife. :thumbup:

Moosez45 said:
Beautiful knife......

I do love the old ones.

Moose
Click to expand...

Me too. That's why I stripped the finish off of an old one (1980's, maybe?) to give it a nice old well-used look. There's something about an old Kabar that's got some stories to tell . . .

~Chris
 
IMHO this is a circa 1976 1219C2 pattern knife made by KA-BAR. Sorry, but it is my opinion from what I see in the pictures.
 
sac troop, trying to learn here. Why do you think it is a 76 model? The Olean, NY under Kabar or something else? I tagged it as a Gen 2 since it had no pins and a square tang and the pommel looked to be "thick". I thought all the remakes followed the Gen 4 pattern, i.e., thin pommel with pins, but with blade markings instead of guard stamps. Were the 76 remakes pinless?
 
I'm curious about this myself.

The pommel is pinned on, of that there is no doubt. The only ones that weren't pinned, were threaded. Thise didn't last long.

The fat bottom on the handle should be a tell tale sign of its age. The stamping looks real clean, but the fuller is slightly angled.

Most of the WWII ones I have, the stamping isn't very deep.

TOOOJ!!!!!!!!!

Moose
 
Bladerunner,

I'm with Sac Troop. This is a reintro knife, not an original WWII knife. However, I do not believe it is the 1976 Commemorative Club knife. That knife was polished, blued and engraved in gold. Would someone actually use that knife? Could be, but there would be evidence of the polishing, blueing and engraving. I think it is from 1978 to around 1988. 1978 is when the first plain jane knives came out for sale.
Hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Paul Tsujimoto
Sr Eng
Prod Dev and Qual
KA-BAR Knives
 
Thanks Toooj! I believe the information I was working off of was likely combining the dates of the "U.S.M.C. 200th Birthday" commemorative knives, (which launched KA BAR's reintroduction of the 1217 pattern knives), and the more pedestrian version of the knife which appears to be like the one pictured in this OP.
Regarding this knife I was also under the impression that this version of the knife, (with a parkerized finish to the blade metal), was only produced for about two years or less before KA BAR changed to a different finish on the blade. I keep hearing different stories about the finish as to whether it's a powder coating or an epoxy type finish.
While I generally concentrate on U.S. Military knives from the WW2 thru the Vietnam era, I've found it necessary to be aware of the different reproduction/reintroduction knives out there in order to eliminate them from what is likely original.
Toooj if you could elaborate a little on the dates of the non-commemorative 1217's I'd like to update my notes on these knives. I hate unintentionally passing on mis-information.

OBTW, for those who would like to read more about the early 1217 commemorative knives here's a link to a good article.

http://www.usmilitaryknives.com/okca_1995.htm
 
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sac troop,

The first non commemorative F/U knives were produced in 1978. They were parkerized. Somewhere in the 1980s the metal finish changed to epoxy powder coat. I looked at some old catalogs and that might have taken place in the 1985-88 era...maybe even earlier. When I tried to find the change on the old board drawings, they were not in the drawing file. When we changed to CAD a lot of the old drawings were stored or deep sixed. If I can find the drawings I can find the change (and date) in the revision box.
The 1976 200th Anniversary commemorative knife was made at Camillus for KA-BAR. The later models were made at ALCAS, which eventually bought KA-BAR and brought the company back to Olean in 1996.
Sac, I'm glad you are here to help keep a semblence of order and knowledge on the F/U knife. There is a lot of nonsense out there. Your input is always appreciated.
Hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Paul Tsujimoto
SR Eng
Prod Dev and Qual
KA-BAR Knives
 
The easy way to tell the newer (1976-now) KA-BAR 1217 knives from the original WW2 models is the size and thickness of the lettering. Only the 1976 and newer ones have the really thick deep stampings, you can spot them a mile away. The letters on the WW2 knives are very thin compared to the more recent ones.
 
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