Military Engineer Knife - New Life

[herbva]

So, this knife was part of a trade deal with Mr. Orvet a few months ago. Dale said he couldn't wait to see what I did with these, so here is the other one. Back in February, I posted the first one (Camillus 69 Resto/Mod). Nothing special, very creative or terrific here, but I am happy I was able to turn this one into a useable knife and it's now a good buddy in my EDC rotation. I think this knife may have begun life as a "Military Engineers Knife', produced on contract with the US military maybe in the 1940's or 50's, but I'm not sure. Anyway, it came to me with a nasty crack in the center of one side, missing bone chips, and a broken can opener. It sat in my "on deck" box for a long time and I couldn't figure out what to do with it. I ended up laying out all of its parts on my work bench and dumped out my box of spare parts blades and tried to make something work, but every combination seemed forced or contrived. Finally it hit me - a single blade knife. I even left in the spare liners/dividers or whatever they are called. It may not be pretty, but its actually a sturdy single blade knife with good snap.

P.S. - Dale, thanks for a fun trade and I hope you were able to use those fixed blades I sent you.

[Doc B]

Nice job on hanging on to the old bone! I wouldn't have thought of trying to repair it, with the crack all the way through it. It came out nice!

[Meridian_Mike]

NICE job Herb!!
I really like that you were able to save those original covers!
Great job on making a single blade out of it too!
Looks like a great toter!!

[1967redrider]

Excellent work, Herb! Had to do a double take on your patchwork, wondered where you found some old scale material at first. Great knife to rehab!

John

[Reverand]

Great job on that! I am also really impressed with the handle repair. It looks much better than I would have expected.
And going to a single blade was a great decision! I also have some "patchwork" knives that I have been looking at, and perhaps I should try this on a couple of them.
Sometimes less really is more!

[glennbad]

Nice save on the bone! That'll make a nice carry now.

[jerryd6818]

"Made in USA" tang stamp, copied from the Kastor List. Left click on image to enlarge.

[herbva]

"Made in USA" tang stamp, copied from the Kastor List. Left click on image to enlarge.

Thanks Jerry. Do you have any idea which one on that chart this knife is (was)? I just realized I was wrong, this couldn't have been one of the military contract "engineer" knives, one of which I have in my collection. I think they were all 4- blade affairs.

[jerryd6818]

Three things lead me to believe it's an older knife (1940's). In order of importance, the broken two piece can opener, the steel handle pins and the long nose cap lifter/screwdriver blade and to some extent, the genuine pocket worn bone handles. That's a semi-educated guess. As Bernard Levine says, "read the knife".

[herbva]

Three things lead me to believe it's an older knife (1940's). In order of importance, the broken two piece can opener, the steel handle pins and the long nose cap lifter/screwdriver blade and to some extent, the genuine pocket worn bone handles. That's a semi-educated guess. As Bernard Levine says, "read the knife".

Thanks Jerry. I did try to "read" this knife, and you can bet that as I was disassembling it, it was talking up a storm to me!