New guy, and unfamiliar with knives. Found a ka-bar today

E

electricfax

Joined
May 19, 2013
Messages
124
So I went to the local auction today and managed to pick this beauty up for $ 27 out the door. I had a couple questions on it tho... The handle and stamp locations seem to be different from the norm.. any one have any info on this knife? I've been searching the last couple hours with no results.
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Somebody a lot smarter than me will come along and help you out, but what I do know is you got a hell of a deal.
 
I thought it was, I was just shopping around for a new knife on that big ole auction site there, and by chance happened looking at the usmc and noticed the prices. A friend of mine said he had an old knife for me to look at yesterday and brought it to the auction this morning. He sold it to me for what he bought it for.. said it wasn't selling in his shop! Oakland Maine for ya i guess
 
In very good shape.....

Nice score, and welcome to the KA-BAR forum.

Moose
 
Yes, one of the KA-BAR Commando's as mentioned earlier. They also made a version with a parkerized finish and a different blade profile. These knives were made during WW2. There is some scuttle butt that many of the bright finished knives were still being issued during the Vietnam Era. The sheath is a correct type for these knives. As you already noted they are of a rather improved quality over what is typically found on WW2 issued sheaths.
Great find and price.

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sac troop said:
Yes, one of the KA-BAR Commando's as mentioned earlier. They also made a version with a parkerized finish and a different blade profile. These knives were made during WW2. There is some scuttle butt that many of the bright finished knives were still being issued during the Vietnam Era. The sheath is a correct type for these knives. As you already noted they are of a rather improved quality over what is typically found on WW2 issued sheaths.
Great find and
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Wondering about your use of "issue" here. These "Commando" knives were not issue knives in WW2, they were PX and private purchase knives.
 
Well thank you for moving the pics! The more i look at it the less i want to.actually use it now.. just thinking its possibly older than my father... lol Id hate to damage it
 
gunsil said:
Wondering about your use of "issue" here. These "Commando" knives were not issue knives in WW2, they were PX and private purchase knives.
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According to records reported to M.H. Coles from KA-BAR. They made a total of about 500,000 of these 6” knives both bright and parkerized blades during WW2.

I’m pretty confident that these are knives that were obtained via Government contract during the war under the heading of 6” hunting knives. Several manufacturers supplied such knives from their inventories. I do believe that these KA-BAR Commando’s are knives that went into inventory later in the war, about 44-45.

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Now I want to ask your guys opinions.. I was looking for a weekend carry knife to use camping hiking and what not.. is there a knife out there for $100 or less that has a similar blade profile and lenght... something with a wood or leather handle.. I ve seen the short usmc knife.. it looks good, the blades a little shorter but idk if theres something similar with a full tang construction vs a rat tail tang that would be a little more curable in a similar package.. I really get the feeling a shoulnt hard use this knife, and theres a ridiculous number of knives out there today ive been looking and looking and im not finding what im looking for. Maybe just a point in the right direction would be helpful.. its rare I go anywhere outside of axes.. but ax and hatchets dont cover the need of a good knife
 
That's one good looking knife. Congrats on the good deal.

Check out the Ka-Bar Mark I. It's available with a stacked leather or synthetic handle.
 
sac troop said:
According to records reported to M.H. Coles from KA-BAR. They made a total of about 500,000 of these 6” knives both bright and parkerized blades during WW2.

I’m pretty confident that these are knives that were obtained via Government contract during the war under the heading of 6” hunting knives. Several manufacturers supplied such knives from their inventories. I do believe that these KA-BAR Commando’s are knives that went into inventory later in the war, about 44-45.

file_zps96b64fcf.jpg
Click to expand...

That late Kabar literature says "produced for the armed forces", it does not say "issued by the armed forces" They were definitely made for the armed forces, but sold as private purchase knives. Have you ever seen a photo of any soldier wearing one of these knives?? I'll have to ask Frank Trzaska about this, but I'm pretty sure he agrees about them being PX knives. Cole was correct about the numbers produced, but one needs to be careful about quoting Cole because he had some things quite incorrect like the KA-BAR "UDT" knives and all the Sanssouci knives.
 
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