Thoughts on reclaiming a KA-BAR(?)

A

Al's Boy

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Oct 22, 2020
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My father served in the USN from 1943-1947. Among his possessions I ended up with when he passed away in 1985 was the knife shown in the attached photo. There are no identifying marks on the blade. Since I was completely unaware of this particular knife I cannot offer info on the intent behind the apparent customization. What is missing are the spacers that once filled out the handle between the aluminum guard and pommel. They were made of plexiglass(?) and completely crumbled. I'm curious if something useful could be salvaged from all this. I'd like to see it returned to something more in the direction of an original KA-BAR handle but on the other hand I'm not a purist. I have no attachment to the guard and pommel shown. I'm curious if the threaded tang was one of the mods and how might that affect any outcome.

(dad also left behind what appears to be an original PAL RH 36 in reasonably good condition)

kabar1 by Marc, on Flickr
 
Kabar sells a handle replay kit consisting of a new hand guard, leather washers and a pommel and pin. It's only $8. You could use that with the threaded point you have to restore your knife. It's a fun proj and plenty of YouTube videos to give you directions
 
Do you know the name of the ship (if any) that your father served on during WW2? What was the color(s) of the crumbled handle pieces?

The original intention of the modifications were to salvage a useable blade AFTER the original leather handle was damaged, most likely due to water rot.

With no marks on the ricassos, this makes the knife a candidate for being a guard stamped USN-MK2 or a 1219C2. Since manufcaturer's name and BoS would have been stamped in the guard, a blank ricasso is to be expected.

The threading of the tang and the guard/replacement pommel construction were most likely done in a machine shop aboard a US Navy ship. The replacement handle pieces could have come from aircraft wind screen fragments or any other large pieces of plastic (signal lamp filters, vehicle light covers, etc).

The easiest fix would be to do as recommended abovw - get a replacement handle kit from Kabar. Or you could make your own disks. Or you could find scraps of colored plexiglass to cut out and mimic what your dad had done to the knife.

A option would be to replace the leather disks using the Kabar kit, which would reminiscent of the way the knife was intially made, but use the guard and pommel from the "theater manufacture" version to make a combo knife. That's what I personnaly would do if it were my father's knife.
 
The threaded tang has been modified and I believe the KA-BAR supplied repair pommel will not fit since it is meant to be pinned onto a flat tang. One would need to remove the threaded piece which would leave a shorter handle or have metal welded on and ground to shape to restore the flat tang that could take the pinned pommel and still have full handle length.
 
If it were me, I'd use the existing guard and pommel, and what was likely a middle aluminum spacer and handle with lexan, plexi, or the like. Your father probably did the work himself or had the work done because his knife handle rotted off and I think it would be cool to restore it to a close approximation of what it was as a theater knife.
 
NapalmCheese said:
If it were me, I'd use the existing guard and pommel, and what was likely a middle aluminum spacer and handle with lexan, plexi, or the like. Your father probably did the work himself or had the work done because his knife handle rotted off and I think it would be cool to restore it to a close approximation of what it was as a theater knife.
Click to expand...

Like what Musashi96 has:
2nUhuCU.jpg
 
To be fair, the OP never said it was a genuine 1219C2. I won't question whether OP's father owned the knife during the 1943-1947 time period. I think if you asked most people that served in the military from that time until now what knife is pictured they'd call it a 'Kabar' (even if only colloquially).

Either way I stand by my answer; use the original bolster, pommel, and spacer and handle the rest with lexan or plexi.
 
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