British and Commonwealth Military Knives

A place to discuss & share pictures of military related knives and tools. Conversation relating to objects of war and peace from all eras welcome.
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jerryd6818
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by jerryd6818 »

Miller Bro`s wrote:Jerry,

What ever happened with this knife? ::shrug::
Dimitri, it turned out to be most likely made in India and not a real BAK. These were apparently imported by a company in New Jersey that has a reputation for selling such things as F-S "look alikes", if ya catch my drift.
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Miller Bro's
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by Miller Bro's »

Jerry, sorry to hear about that :(
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by Iron Hoarder »

There are British Army Knives made in India for their forces there. I have several of them. They are genuine but just made in India. Some are pretty good but quality in general isn't as good.
I measure my collection by the ton.
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jerryd6818
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by jerryd6818 »

Ahh, India and Pakistan. The middle eastern bosom of quality. :mrgreen: ::barf::
Forged on the anvil of discipline.
The Few. The Proud.
Jerry D.

This country has become more about sub-groups than about it's unity as a nation.

"The #72 pattern has got to be pretty close to the perfect knife."
--T.J. Murphy 2012
Mossdancer
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by Mossdancer »

Hi Steve;
Came across this yesterday. My limited materials say it might be a Government redo in the late 30's of maybe the 1888p bayonet into a Trench Knife for the fighters in the Trenches.
From the looks of the stitching the sheath may possibly be correct. Why don't you give all of us the straight scoop. You Brits just did a hell of a good job of marking your tools of war.
Being that no one has posted yet I will add this URL I just found. Mine appears to be in a bit better condition.

http://www.old-smithy.info/bayonets/ful ... 0knife.jpg

moss
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by sav »

Alright. I have absolutely no idea what or how old this is. It just somehow ended up in my possession some years ago. I had it sitting on my dresser, bugging me to sell it.

Ok, so this is an old pocket knife attached to a (broken necklace?) chain of 15 carat gold..

I was going to see the gold today and got offered around 505 pounds.. but seeings as I had never heard of 15 carat being used i did some research. Turns out that it is actually pretty rare - it means that it would have to have been made before 1932 but later than 1856 in England. I then had a closer inspection of the knife. It has no engravings other than 'made in sheffield england.'
It looks extraordinarily old and if full of old leaves.... the blades are a nuisance to open. I would love to know if this would be of any value or worth keeping? Maybe there is a story behind it? My grandmother said the chain could have been attached to a fob watch? who knows...
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by dutchy357 »

Hi Guys

Just a small contribution to this thread.

Here are some of the main patterns of Clasp Knives issued by the British during WW1.

Australia had no cutlery industry at that time. Evidence suggests that Australian troops were supplied with the same knives as their British counterparts.

There were some minor variations on these patterns, mostly in the scale material.

Image

8173/1914, 6353/1905, AP301


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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by Shearer »

dutchy357 wrote:dutchy357
Nice collection and welcome to AAPK
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by dutchy357 »

Shearer wrote: Nice collection and welcome to AAPK
Thanks Shearer

I hang out at the ABF most of the time.

However, the only way I am going to learn more about the knives I collect is to widen my field of contacts.

I am sure that there are members here who will be able to assist me.

Dutchy
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by smiling-knife »

WWI pattern army knives made from 1905 to 1939.
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by jerryd6818 »

Dang Steve. They don't look a whole lot different from the WWII knives except for what I assume is the can opener (or do y'all say "tin opener"? :lol: ). Nice gathering. They all look like they're in pretty decent condition.
Forged on the anvil of discipline.
The Few. The Proud.
Jerry D.

This country has become more about sub-groups than about it's unity as a nation.

"The #72 pattern has got to be pretty close to the perfect knife."
--T.J. Murphy 2012
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by wornoutwrench »

Here's another Schatt and Morgan WW I Canadian. Massive knife with killer snap and great bone.
Arrow and C on the marlin spike.
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by Miller Bro's »

smiling-knife wrote:WWI pattern army knives made from 1905 to 1939.
Nice collection! :shock:

Who is the maker on the stag handle knife?
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by jerryd6818 »

wornoutwrench wrote:Here's another Schatt and Morgan WW I Canadian. Massive knife with killer snap and great bone.
Arrow and C on the marlin spike.
That's a honey. First one I've seen.
Forged on the anvil of discipline.
The Few. The Proud.
Jerry D.

This country has become more about sub-groups than about it's unity as a nation.

"The #72 pattern has got to be pretty close to the perfect knife."
--T.J. Murphy 2012
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by knife7knut »

Thought I had posted in this thread before but apparently not.Here are some of mine.The last one is somewhat of a mystery to me.There is what looks to be a broad arrow mark sandwiched in-between the cyphers on the blades.Each blade is marked but all are not the same markings.What is really unusual about this knife is that where the spine of each blade meets the corresponding back spring they are cut at a different angle and fit precisely against one another. Someone had suggested that it might be of Indian origin but to date I have not been able to corroborate that.
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by wornoutwrench »

Not quite a pocket knife but here is an Australian combat knife from WW II. They ended up with Americans too. Its a bit out of line with my collecting.. wouldn't mind trading it for a nice old 5165 or similar.
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danno50
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by danno50 »

Here is a Camillus made Canadian WWI knife. Orvet posted one similar in the Camillus subforum. Closed length is 5". It does not appear to have the regular broad arrow stamp, however, there are a couple dings in the marlin spike which may be a misstamping of the broad arrow (pic 3).
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by danno50 »

Hit submit when I meant to add another photo. Showing the dings in the marlin spike which may be a mistamped broad arrow?
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by Miller Bro's »

Nice find Dan ::tu::
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by danno50 »

Thanks Dimitri.
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by cody6268 »

Alex K. wrote:M346; W.R. Case & Son made this pattern knife for Canada during WWII ....According to Mr. Flook's book : "The World War Two period US Navy knives were made by W.R. Case...between 1940 and 1942 and bore the mark CASE XX on the blade. The knives made by Case during the war for the Canadians carried the CASE XX METAL STAMPINGS LTD mark...The early POST-WAR Canadian made knives were produced between 1948 and 1949 by the Case subsidiary W.R. Case and Sons of Canada Ltd, Pictou, Nova Scotia. These knives bear the M.S. LTD XX mark."

Closed Length: 4 7/8 inches

1) Sheepfoot: 3 3/4 inches
2) Marlin Spike 4 inches
3) Punch Blade 1 5/8 inches
______
Alex

Here's the M.S. Ltd. Canadian Navy Knife. Paid $20 shipped for it off Ebay and it arrived today. Problem is, instead of leaving it up the buyer, the seller cleaned it a little too roughly. He used coarse steel wool or a wire brush, as scratches abound. He did an awful job, as the "punch" as you refer to it (I thought it was a can opener), bail, and spine of blade still have signs of rust. I didn't know this until arrival, but the backspring on the blade is cracked, but doesn't affect snap that much, but may be why the marlinspike is wobbly. Thanks for the info, I'd thought it was made during WWII, not after.

Marlinspike does an awesome job at what it's intended for--made quick work of a bootlace that was in a knotted mess. I won't be using it for anything other than that, it will be going into the collection. I'll get another British Navy Knife (I prefer those with the black checkered handles) to use, which was what I was doing when I came across this one. Like the electrician's pattern already has, the British Navy Pattern I presume will multiply quickly in my collection, as I plan to get another I can actually use. This one's too rare.

It's quite large compared to a Case electrician's knife
Photo0580.jpg

Closeup of "Broad Arrow" inside of the letter "C" stamp.
Photo0577.jpg

Sheepsfoot Blade:
Photo0578.jpg

Closeup of tang stamp:
Photo0579.jpg

Punch blade:
Photo0581.jpg

Marlinspike:
Photo0582.jpg
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by sakoblade »

I'm a new member from Sweden and I thought I'd start out here with my only military issued knife so far, a British one made by W&S Butcher Sheffield.

It is marked as such and has a Broadarrow and 1943 but has no marlin spike.

They did a sloppy job when marking the blade but the knife is in decent shape for being over 70 years old.

I am not sure which forces they issued these knives to?

Thanks for looking!

Jim
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by smiling-knife »

Hi Jim, Welcome on board. That's a nice example of a WWII British Army knife. There were a number of variation on this pattern. There were two piece patterns, like your knife, and three piece models with a marline spike. Some, especially earlier in WWII, had steel bolsters.
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by sakoblade »

smiling-knife, thank you for the welcome! :)

Do you happen to know to which units these two piece patterns were issued to? And why the two patterns? Was it simply the fact that they wanted a less expensive knife and omitted the marlin spike?

Nevertheless, I really like this one and it fits very well in my small Sheffield collection and I hope to expand that section when I can.

Have a great weekend!

Jim
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Re: British and Commonwealth Military Knives

Post by smiling-knife »

Hi Jim, No sorry I don't know about the specific units. I think they were widely distributed. This is the three piece version.
Hope you have a great weekend too.
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