I did some research on the EW Stone theater knife. Okay cool so I totally understand that the leather handles were rotting off the knives in the humid hot climate and that something needed to be done. Luckily Mr Stone worked in a foundry aboard a ship(?). Sourcing the metal for the new handle from downed Japanese aircraft is pretty cool. From what I read Stone sand cast these handles and hand finished them. If I was a GI humping 80 pounds of gear through Pacific Island swamps, brush and jungle having the leather handle of my knife rot off would really piss me off to. Stone reportedly made roughly 300 of these knives. Was he charging money for them? That is a lot of time and effort to do anything for free. Tactically the shiny cobra and skull handles shining away in the moonlight would be the last thing I would need or want at night during the Pacific campaign. I guess this knife is iconic because of the time and effort Stone put into these handles and that he made a good number of them. Still all that effort and time could have been used to make a non reflective metal copy of the shape of the stacked leather handle as its actually pretty ergonomic.
Did some research on WW2 theater knives and the coolest most functional ones had brass handles with a flat finish that either had finger grooves or even incorporated a knife handle and brass knuckles and even brass knuckles with short spikes on them.
Sure okay I respect the historical aspect and understand that Ka Bar should have no problem selling all 350(?)copies at a grand a piece. I always thought of Ka Bar as a true value based company as the product line give you so much for so little. Now say if Ka Bar was selling actual EW Stone original theater knives THEN I could see the $1,000 price tag. I can only hope that this is the start of repro theater knives that would be very very cool but not at $1,000 each.
If Ka Bar had EW Stone Jr design an original knife that would be awesome I bet he would do great. Bob Dozier makes many incredible customs. Ka Bar should at least buy a design or two off him I would gladly pay premium prices for something like that. Ka Bar desperately needs some original new designs and as far as I know are not exactly in any hurry to contract modern designers. I put all that blame on Ka Bars parent company Cutco. Cutco seems to have bought Cutco just so they can say they own Ka Bar, makers of the worlds most recognized knife, as a sales tactic to sell their kitchen, dinner and chef sets. Used to work for Cutco selling knives from door to door so Ive seen it from the inside. One can only pray another group of investors come along that actually have some knife enthusiasts among them. Hiring Ethan Becker and buying his designs was the wisest move they made since they hired Dozier but I understand Dozier was hired while Ka Bar was owned by a different company.
Ive said it once Ill say it again. If Ka Bar wants to have a more expensive line of premium knives they need to start by buying Shane Siberts design for his custom Scout model. Good luck $1,000 EW Stone Junior repro theater knives, Im sure you will all hang proudly on collectors walls in nice display cases.
