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- May 7, 2013
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Wife and I went shopping today and one of the stops that we made was an antique store that specializes in refurbishing very old furniture and other items from the days of yore.
I have an old multi-drawer tool box that my Dad owned back in the early '40s. It needs some work and I can no longer stand long enough (back issues) to do what it would take to fix this once beautiful box. But I asked the proprietor if they would be interested in doing that for me. They would. Bring it in and let them look and they'll give me a price and time to fix it. Sounded good to me.
Came home and started pulling out all of the misc. tools and other things that Dad had kept in that box. At one time he worked with my Uncle as a gunsmith. Uncle went on to be a fairly famous maker of gun barrels (G. R. Douglas barrels, for those of you into that kind of thing) and Dad went on to do other things. This old tool box, which was the tool box he used when he did his gunsmith work, was chock full of fun things - old but mint calipers, various tools, pieces of machined metal that I have no idea what they were used for and so on.
I found a knife.
Now this knife is in horrible condition (I'll post pics tomorrow when I can get some sunlight). Covered in gunk and rust. But it is an old USMC Imperial knife that I highly suspect Dad was issued in WWII. Dad was a Merchant Marine and often mentioned how they were issued left overs from the various branches of the Armed Forces.
The only 2 blades that open are the main blade which is a spear covered in tar and missing large half moon pieces of the edge and a can opener. It is complete with a bail, a circular pin which is round and has the initials USMC, one letter at 12, 3, 6, & 9 o'clock on the pin. I think one of the other blades is an awl, but I'm not sure. The 4th blade is currently a mystery. The scales appear to be a brown (maybe?) jigged bone of some sort, but could be a synthetic if they used such on those knives. I can't really tell yet.
Again, I'll post some pics tomorrow for any comments or thoughts that you guys might have about this knife and if I might be right about its origination.
Pure gold. I've got a grin from ear-to-ear.
I have an old multi-drawer tool box that my Dad owned back in the early '40s. It needs some work and I can no longer stand long enough (back issues) to do what it would take to fix this once beautiful box. But I asked the proprietor if they would be interested in doing that for me. They would. Bring it in and let them look and they'll give me a price and time to fix it. Sounded good to me.
Came home and started pulling out all of the misc. tools and other things that Dad had kept in that box. At one time he worked with my Uncle as a gunsmith. Uncle went on to be a fairly famous maker of gun barrels (G. R. Douglas barrels, for those of you into that kind of thing) and Dad went on to do other things. This old tool box, which was the tool box he used when he did his gunsmith work, was chock full of fun things - old but mint calipers, various tools, pieces of machined metal that I have no idea what they were used for and so on.
I found a knife.
Now this knife is in horrible condition (I'll post pics tomorrow when I can get some sunlight). Covered in gunk and rust. But it is an old USMC Imperial knife that I highly suspect Dad was issued in WWII. Dad was a Merchant Marine and often mentioned how they were issued left overs from the various branches of the Armed Forces.
The only 2 blades that open are the main blade which is a spear covered in tar and missing large half moon pieces of the edge and a can opener. It is complete with a bail, a circular pin which is round and has the initials USMC, one letter at 12, 3, 6, & 9 o'clock on the pin. I think one of the other blades is an awl, but I'm not sure. The 4th blade is currently a mystery. The scales appear to be a brown (maybe?) jigged bone of some sort, but could be a synthetic if they used such on those knives. I can't really tell yet.
Again, I'll post some pics tomorrow for any comments or thoughts that you guys might have about this knife and if I might be right about its origination.
Pure gold. I've got a grin from ear-to-ear.
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