Your Important KA-BAR/My Papa's KA-BAR

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iwouldhurtafly

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Dec 3, 2010
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This post means a lot to me. Mainly because the blade in the post is really important. This is my Grandfather's KA-BAR Stockman. It was the knife he carried with him every day. I remember it being used to whittle out fun things for me and the other grandkids. He also used this knife to shell pecans, and was very adept at doing so. Sadly he died when I was still a boy, but my mother secured this blade for me and gave it to me before the funeral. My Papa is the one who gave me my first knife when I was just 5 years old, and I have had one with me ever since. I have used and carried this blade just as he did before me. It currently lives in a safe place when I am not using it so that I can one day pass it on to my son, daughter or one of possibly a grandchild if I have one. I have no doubt this knife will survive many more generations even after I am gone. I love KA-BARs because of this blade... I am very thankful for every thing I own that says KA-BAR... Here is the KA-BAR 1100 Stockman, made in the USA.








Thank you for looking.

If you have any blades from KA-BAR that mean a lot to you, post them up in this thread. I know I am not alone when it comes to owning a KA-BAR that is important to you and that has stood the test of time.
 
That knife has held up well over time. Still plenty of the original profiles and lots of character.:thumbup:
 
sac troop said:
That knife has held up well over time. Still plenty of the original profiles and lots of character.:thumbup:
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Yah, for a pattern out of the 60's or so and for being an EDC it has held up really well. Typically when you see these older blades they have been sharpened to kingdom come, but this one has just been cared for. The character it has is one of its most enduring traits aside its back story. I appreciate your attention to detail.
 
Any thing you can tie to a loved one will always stay with you,

My cousin got me started early with a buck 112, he collected the Ka-bar's and almost got them finished, nice knife

 
Yes, I hope this thread pans out, cause I really want to see all those meaningful KA-BARs...

From carried every day, to carried during service, to a safe queen, pics of any KA-BAR that means a lot to you!
 
My grandpa used to have a old rigging knife that he used all the time when I was a kid. And I ran across this a couple of years ago and had to get it. I plan on passing this guy down to my child ( when I have one) 1950's sailors rigging knife
IMAG1219.jpg
 
These are my important KA-BAR's. The top knife was carried by my grandfather during World War II and given to me days before he died. I didn't even know he had a KA-BAR; we went out to his garage while I was visiting and he pulled it out a toolbox and handed it to me. He had been using it for almost seven decades.

The bottom knife is a family special honoring a family member who was killed in Afghanistan in 2011. He was a USMC scout sniper and served alongside his brother. The spent casing is his and I can only use my imagination as to where the rest of it ended up. We are very proud of him and his brother.

Not pictured but of note: on the day my brothers and I were born our father bought us KA-BAR's. Model 1189 to be exact. When we were old enough to hunt he gave us the knives. One of the best gifts I have ever received.

Family Knives.jpg

-OKB
 
OFFICIAL_KA-BAR said:
These are my important KA-BAR's. The top knife was carried by my grandfather during World War II and given to me days before he died. I didn't even know he had a KA-BAR; we went out to his garage while I was visiting and he pulled it out a toolbox and handed it to me. He had been using it for almost seven decades.

The bottom knife is a family special honoring a family member who was killed in Afghanistan in 2011. He was a USMC scout sniper and served alongside his brother. The spent casing is his and I can only use my imagination as to where the rest of it ended up. We are very proud of him and his brother.

Not pictured but of note: on the day my brothers and I were born our father bought us KA-BAR's. Model 1189 to be exact. When we were old enough to hunt he gave us the knives. One of the best gifts I have ever received.

View attachment 366852

-OKB
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Wow, Truly important, thank you so much for sharing that OKB... Means a lot.
 
Not exactly my grandfather's Kabars, just as close as I can get....a pair of 1232s, with a Western L46-5.

View attachment 368806

I posted the story earlier in another thread, but here goes... Back in 1965, shortly before he was diagnosed with kidney cancer, my grandfather and I were working on a combine when his left shirt sleeve got caught in one of the drive chains. He calmly pulled out the Kabar fixed blade on his hip , cut off the sleeve and said "that's why you carry a fixed blade" and in my 12-13 y.o. naivete, asked "what if it had been your other arm?" He just gave me a funny look, walked over to the tractor, turned it off and said "let's go". We drove 3 miles to the Western Auto in town to get a 2nd knife. They were out of Kabars, so he bought the closest thing they had to what he liked to carry.... the Western L46-5 in the picture above, and started wearing both when working on equipment. A week or 3 later, W.A. got some new Kabars in and he got a new one that matched his old one. Until the day he got too sick to work, he always wore 2 blades when working on farm implements or machinery down at the grain elevator he ran in town.

He gave me the Western and said something on the order of "don't ever work on moving stuff with out one". That knife was my first fixed blade ever. I just had a few slip joint folders until then. That started my love of fixed blade knives in general and Kabar and Western knives, specifically. I added the 2nd keeper strap to the sheath because the original one (top) was a little slack and lets the knife slip up too easily.

The Kabars he carried were smaller than the L46-5, - stacked leather with about 4 inch, straight spined blades. The best my memory can dredge up is that they looked a lot like the 1232. I don't remember ever seeing model numbers on them, just the word Kabar. Don't even remember if they had USA, Japan or Cleveland on them. So I got 2 old 1232s off fleabay - one is marked 1232 Japan and the other, 1232 Cleveland, Ohio. They represent the 2 he had. When he died, since I had the Western, my grandmother gave the 2 Kabars to a couple of cousins who promptly misplaced them somehow.

The old barn that he had built just before WW2 is trying to fall down and I'm planning to make a shadow box from some of it for them.
 
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Great story... isn't it great how a knife can take you back? I have to say your grandfathers observation on why a fixed blade is important is very true, nothing will ever deploy faster and safer than a fixed blade, and that goodness is multiplied in spades when its a KA-BAR coming out of the sheath... However, I think your link is broken to your pictures.


Thank you for sharing!
 
I have a few older Ka-bars but they have no sentimental value to me so I won't cheapen your great thread by posting pictures here, but they are posted in the Ka-bar Picture Thread.

Thank you for sharing your Papa's knife with us. And thanks to the rest for sharing their personal knives here. :) :thumbup:
 
markksr said:
I have a few older Ka-bars but they have no sentimental value to me so I won't cheapen your great thread by posting pictures here, but they are posted in the Ka-bar Picture Thread.

Thank you for sharing your Papa's knife with us. And thanks to the rest for sharing their personal knives here. :) :thumbup:
Click to expand...

Thank you for looking!
 
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