WWI & WWII pocket knives also what did these great gentlemen carried after the wars..

M

mudguard

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I recently got to read a letter from a WWI soldier.. he was the relative of a family's friend. He eventually passed away during the war at an unknown location in Europe. This triggered me to think about what he would have considered valuable to him.. and to him his family was the most valuable thing, he had little to no personal attachment to his equipment or stuff. This lead me to think about what tool/pocket knife he would have owned and carried, maybe even because he found it very useful during his time before and during the war... also what would gentlemen like him who survived the war would have kept in their pockets after coming back from the war. I know I could only get speculations none of us were there, but perhaps someone knows of someone who was.. and I would love to hear stories about the tools in the pockets of heroes during WWII also.

Lets dedicate this thread to all those people around the globe who gave their lives in order to protect the freedom that many of us enjoy today..
 
My dad was a rancher during the WWII so didn't get drafted. His EDC was a Keen Kutter scout pattern carried in his back pocket with a lanyard attached to a belt loop. He later transitioned to a Buck Stockman pattern and often carried a Buck 110 on his belt.

My Uncle Roy was in WWII, a BAR man in the invasion of Italy. He carried a series Case stockman patterns (knives wore out with daily use and resharpening) and used it for everything including dressing out deer and elk.
 
My Dad served in WWII. He chafed at the bit as the war in Europe and the Pacific progressed, reading the papers he delivered daily for news of victories and defeats. But he was too young to join. Shortly after his sixteenth, he enlisted. Here is a pgoto of him aboard his ship, U.S.S. Quincy, CA-71 a heavy cruiser.

2ikpkr8.png


As you might imagine, a ship of this size crewed by 2,000 men was a floating city. It had water and sewage treatment facilities,cooking and eating facilities, machine shops, electricity production and laundry services, even a hospital and store. He served on her from her launch in 1943 in the European theater, transited the canal and served in the Pacific, even after witnessing the signing of the surrender in Tokyo bay. Then he returned home to marry his prewar sweetheart, build himself a fenderless hotrod, and open a drycleaners after completing college. Tools. One thing his stint in the navy taught him was to use and respect tools. He shortly had to close the cleaners and move with his wife to her father's farm. The gent was getting on in age and needed the help, and the mechanical skills of his son-in-law. So they cleared more delta gumbo of cypress and pinoak trees, rebuilt prewar John Deer tractors and built a shop to house the tools required, mostly Sears Craftsman tools. And now being a farmer, he carried a quality knife befitting a farmer, a large bone stockman with carbon steel blades. Craftsman. Which was actually an Ulster produced for Sears' Col. Tom Dunlap in Walden New York. Dad was a tool man, and he taught me, if nothing else, to appreciate good tools, use the right tool for the job and take care of them.
 
My a dad carried a couple of john primbles He and my granpaw farmed , every farmer had a knife when I was a boy They didn't need to force patina on their knives :-) Made me a knife lover for sure Jake
 
You know its funny. This generation of men usually got by with 1 knife and used it for everything. Our generation (myself included) is less rural and we need the latest and greatest super steels for office settings just to open boxes and envelopes.
 
Anyone serving during World War II probably came across one or more of these Camillus knives

Camillus01_zpse1acbd19.jpg



BTW, that was excellent, Codger.... thanks for sharing.
 
jec88 said:
You know its funny. This generation of men usually got by with 1 knife and used it for everything. Our generation (myself included) is less rural and we need the latest and greatest super steels for office settings just to open boxes and envelopes.
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Need or want? ;)
 
Since the majority of the Americans that went "Over There" were farm boys from very rural settings, I imagine they took what they had in their pocket when they volunteered. The only WWI vet I knew was my grandfather, and he couldn't remember which knife he carried in his pocket. He seemed to think it was a large, equal end senator.

The WWII vets I have spoken with over the years favored issued knives as they didn't want to worry about the welfare of purchased or well loved knife. A "gimme" knife could be used with wild abandon, broken, lost, gambled in a poker game or given to a friend as needed. Growing up in city with 6 military bases and and two of the largest veteran's facilities (for years) in the country I have worked with a lot of vets over the years. Not now, but plenty were still working when I started the trades back in '72. I only saw one guy pull out a small knife that he claimed to have carried during WWII.

Odd to me, but only about half seem to have carried a pocket knife. Of those I talked to that did, they liked the all stainless scout knife pattern and the TL 29 pattern the best.

Robert
 
My grandfather volunteered for WWII, despite having four children and being "too old" (in his 30s). He served in the 28th Infantry Division and survived the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest before losing an arm on the second day of the Battle of the Bulge. As a kid, I was very close to him and we spent a lot of time together. Having only one arm, he no longer carried a folding knife, but he did once describe to me the pocketknife he carried in the Army. Based on his description, it was a smallish two-blader, something like the 3 3/8" medium jack that Case still makes.

He told me that when he and his buddies were bored, they would strop their sheath knives and pocket knives on their leather boots and compete to see whose was sharpest.

-- Mark
 
My great grandfather fought for Germany in WW1 l. He privately bought a jagdnicker. I saw that in pictures but wasn't able to identify it. What my grandfathers in ww2 carried I do not know.

There is a very interesting book about edged weapons in ww1. I saw it in a book store in Germany maybe I'll pick it up when im there.
 
My grandpa, born in 1906, didn't serve in either WW because of his age, but he always carried a pocket knife. He was a farmer and carpenter, so always had plenty of tools about, but he always carried a 3 to 3¼" stainless steel pen knife. Whatever it had stamped or engraved on the covers was worn completely smooth by the time I ever saw it, so he must have had it a long time.

My dad was born in 1921 and served in WWII, being badly wounded at the Battle of the Bulge. After the war he became a lawyer, and only ever owned two knives that I knew of, and neither of them a folder. He enjoyed hunting and fishing, and had a Rapala filet knife in his tackle box, and this Imperial sheath knife for everything else. I still have them both.

IMG_9803_zpsf2067798.jpg~original
 
Gentlemen, thank you all for the wonderful stories. I appreciate hearing them. Oral history is some of the most interesting.

I feel honored to have treated some of our finest generation. Some of their stories are awe inspiring.

I am huge student of history. For the past several days I have been wearing a German field watch from the WWII era. It has DH on the case back and a serial number. I have no idea how it ended up in English hands, but it is interesting to contemplate. A link with our past, regardless.
 
jec88 said:
You know its funny. This generation of men usually got by with 1 knife and used it for everything. Our generation (myself included) is less rural and we need the latest and greatest super steels for office settings just to open boxes and envelopes.
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That generation was probably the most pragmatic and down to earth generation that came along. They were fresh from dealing with a major depression, and they often had to "git it done" with very little but some scavenged materials and ingenuity. They grew up and came of age with little or no discretionary income, so something as frivolous as knife collecting was almost sinful to them. My own father was typical of that era. If a man had a pocket knife, then that was enough. If it cut what had to be cut, then it was 'good enough' to go on with.

I do know that some of them carried their freebie knives for decades afterward. My Uncle Charlie was a GI that got his feet wet on a Normandy beach, and walked all the way to Germany. He often joked that he had wished he'd had the smarts to tell them he was a truck driver, so he'd have driven to Germany with a deuce and a half. He carried his old wood handled TL-29 until the blade was a pale shadow of it's former self. He only retired it when I came home on leave with a brand new como kit for him, including a new TL-29.

My dad's older brother, my Uncle Mike, carried a Camillus stockman until it has all three blades reduced to sharpened toothpicks. He'd been issued it in the Navy, and he carried to for the rest of his life. Uncle Mike had been asked to volunteer for PT boat duty when they learned he'd been raised on a fishing boat on the Chesapeake Bay. He'd never part with his old Camillus stockman that once has "property U.S. Government" stenciled on the main blade. After the war, he just returned to the Choptank and worked the bay as a waterman for the rest of his life.

On my mother's side, my Uncle Sonny was mom's youngest brother, and enlisted just after Pearl Harbor with his mother's permission. He flew B17's out of Eastern England for the war, and he carried one of those all steel Camillus scout knives. He stayed on to become a career Air Force pilot, and after the war discarded the scout knife for a SAK he picked up in Europe. He was a SAK person the rest of his life. When I was a kid, I asked him what he did with the knife he carried in the war. He said he didn't really know, maybe it was in a box someplace. The fact is, he wasn't a knife knut, so he didn't really care. It had served it's purpose when he had it, but now he carried a SAK in his flight jacket, so that was that. Pragmatic. It was just tool that he happened to have used for a bit.
 
mudguard said:
.. and I would love to hear stories about the tools in the pockets of heroes during WWII also.
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Knives, folks. The thread needs to stay focused on pocket knives.

My father was a decorated veteran of the WW II Pacific theater. He never, and I mean NEVER, spoke about it to me and I have no idea what pocket knife he carried.
 
Many of these men tried to forget their experiences of war. My paternal Grandad was one of these.He had been at the Dunkirk evacuation ,later North Africa as well as the Italy and the battle of Monte Cassino.
He drove a Bren carrier in the Inniskilling Fuseliers. He had part of one hand missing as a result of being shot at. My mum says that he never spoke to her much at all until I was born (first grandchild and a boy)She says it was the first time she ever saw him with a smile on his face.Lung cancer 1970 aged 60.He smoked a lot.
My maternal Grandad was ground crew for Spitfires and such at various aerodromes in England. His experience was very different-he liked to reminisce and tell the stories of his time in the coal mines and the war.He led the way for our family to Australia.
Stomach cancer 1996 aged 77.He liked a drink.
KenBrownspitfire_zps131a59d5.jpeg

DSCN5974.jpg
 
What size is that knife? It would be fantastic to see it opened too. Thank you for sharing meako..
meako said:
Many of these men tried to forget their experiences of war. My paternal Grandad was one of these.He had been at the Dunkirk evacuation ,later North Africa as well as the Italy and the battle of Monte Cassino.
He drove a Bren carrier in the Inniskilling Fuseliers. He had part of one hand missing as a result of being shot at. My mum says that he never spoke to her much at all until I was born (first grandchild and a boy)She says it was the first time she ever saw him with a smile on his face.Lung cancer 1970 aged 60.He smoked a lot.
My maternal Grandad was ground crew for Spitfires and such at various aerodromes in England. His experience was very different-he liked to reminisce and tell the stories of his time in the coal mines and the war.He led the way for our family to Australia.
Stomach cancer 1996 aged 77.He liked a drink.
KenBrownspitfire_zps131a59d5.jpeg

DSCN5974.jpg
Click to expand...
 
My Mom's father served in the USN 1915-1922. Dad's father served in the U.S. Army 1916/7-1919. Dad served in the USN 1942-1967. They all carried pocket knives but nothing fancy. This was my Mom's father's last knife.

Case%2520Copperhead%2520Open.jpg
 
My dads father served in WW2 with the Army. Never much spoke about it and I was to young to think to ask. I do know that after Japan surrendered he spent a good but of time there operating heavy machinery building runways.

Not sure what he carried then but the last 20 years of his life he had an old timer stockman that I now have.


Im lucky enough to work at a Veterans Hospital with a large number of WW2 veterans and love to meet and listen to their stories whenever possible. Ive even met a few female veterans who served overseas during WW2.
 
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