WW2 Western Cutlery

Kudos, Mate! You did a great job of resurrecting that piece of cutlery history! The stacked leather looks amazing! Good show!
 
You did a great job re-doing the handle! I have the 8-inch Western, leather handle is gone, but someone replaced the leather with what looks like some kind of tropical hard wood. I like it like it is, makes me think it was used in the Pacific and the climate caused the leather to rot off. John
 
Thanks for the kind words. i saw a video where Western used to dip the handles in lacquer for a sealer. I tried something different. i put 4 coats of wax on the leather and melted it in each time. It buffed out real nice. I'm hoping 1 coat a year from now on will keep any moisture out. Also I just found a G46-8 Western WW2 like yours with no washers. Can't wait to get started on it. Send a pic of your Western if you'd like, would like to see how it looks.
 
Those 8 inch Westerns are great finds. I like the idea of the tropical wood handle (and possible ww2 connection)

The H shaped leather washers on these split tangs, always seemed questionable to me.
 
Here are a couple pic's of Mr. Larson's Western G46-8 with possible WW2 wear and/or reconditioning. Good stuff John!
 

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tltt said:
Western G 46 - 6, it's a variation of the G or L-46 "Shark" Series. The G 2 = Government style flat pommel and the split tang instead of the L series birds head.

file.php
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Found a drawing from Cole's book.
Click to expand...

The "G" handle descriptor has absolutely nothing to do with being a "government" knife. Actually ALL 46-X series knives were G46 from introduction in 1936 until 1954.

All WW2 Sharks and Baby Sharks, whether flat pommel or bird head pommel, were designated as G46s. From 1946 to 1954, all G46-5 and G46-6 knives had bird head pommels. In 1955, the designations changed from G46-5 and G46-6 to L46-5 and L46-6.

Prior to WW2, the G46 -4, -5, -6 had mushroom pommels. The G46-8 was a wartime model only - about 1943 to 1945. The -8 came about only because Western was not issued a contract to make the 1219C2 or USN-MK2. The L46-8 was not produced post-WW2 until about 1955 or later.
 
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