RH-36-pal

[rugerman44]

I was looking over my rh-36 pal knife today and discoverd the tip of it was magnetic is this normal. The knife belonged to a friend of mines daddy who carried it on ship in ww2. I guess it was navy issued to him.

The Mans name was Frank Robertson.

[Eye Brand Man]

The Pal 36 and Cattaraugus Q225 are 2 of the most prolific knives of WWII. I'm pretty sure the Pal's were private purchase. The blade is made from good ole carbon steel, so a magnet will stick to it and the blade can be made magnetized.

[eveled]

Even throwing a knife over and over again can magnetize it. You have to stick it every time. One bad hit will shake it up and the magnetism is gone.

[doglegg]

Even throwing a knife over and over again can magnetize it. You have to stick it every time. One bad hit will shake it up and the magnetism is gone.

Interesting

[zzyzzogeton]

Rugerman -

It's hard to know, without documentation, whether a specific civilian model knife was used by a serviceman during the war. Some speculation can be made on the ones made with steel/plastic guards and pommels. Lack of or a paucity of ornamentation (colored spacers) can also point in that direction.

PAL bought the knife side from Remington in 1940. Any knife with the PAL/Remington stamped COULD have been used in the war. Obviously, ALL of them were not.

PAL made runs of the RH-36 for the Army BEFORE the Cattaraugus and CASE "Q" knives were designed/made. They weren't the only company from whom the government bought hunting knive as a stopgap measure. Eventually, the Navy went with 5" and 7", the Marines went with 7" and the Army with 6" as the "standard" blade lengths for their "spec'd knives".

When the war first began, a shortage of knives for military issue prompted a call for civilians to donate any hunting knives they could that had a blade length of 4 to 6 inches or more. A 2019 article from the San Antonio Express News tells part of the story -

https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/ ... 525669.php

Here is a thread about knives and WW2 being donated over of Bladeforums. A correction to my original post in the below thread link - it has since been determined that there was no real company called San Antonio Iron Works to which all the saber-made knives are attributed.



This picture shows a couple of soldiers sorting through a large pile of knives donated in the "Save a Life with a Knife" program mentioned in the above article. A thread about WW2 donated knives over on Bladeforums -

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/kinfolks.1365136/

[rugerman44]

The Pal 36 and Cattaraugus Q225 are 2 of the most prolific knives of WWII. I'm pretty sure the Pal's were private purchase. The blade is made from good ole carbon steel, so a magnet will stick to it and the blade can be made magnetized.

Thanks for the reply

[rugerman44]

Rugerman -

It's hard to know, without documentation, whether a specific civilian model knife was used by a serviceman during the war. Some speculation can be made on the ones made with steel/plastic guards and pommels. Lack of or a paucity of ornamentation (colored spacers) can also point in that direction.

PAL bought the knife side from Remington in 1940. Any knife with the PAL/Remington stamped COULD have been used in the war. Obviously, ALL of them were not.

PAL made runs of the RH-36 for the Army BEFORE the Cattaraugus and CASE "Q" knives were designed/made. They weren't the only company from whom the government bought hunting knive as a stopgap measure. Eventually, the Navy went with 5" and 7", the Marines went with 7" and the Army with 6" as the "standard" blade lengths for their "spec'd knives".

When the war first began, a shortage of knives for military issue prompted a call for civilians to donate any hunting knives they could that had a blade length of 4 to 6 inches or more. A 2019 article from the San Antonio Express News tells part of the story -

https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/ ... 525669.php

Here is a thread about knives and WW2 being donated over of Bladeforums. A correction to my original post in the below thread link - it has since been determined that there was no real company called San Antonio Iron Works to which all the saber-made knives are attributed.



This picture shows a couple of soldiers sorting through a large pile of knives donated in the "Save a Life with a Knife" program mentioned in the above article. A thread about WW2 donated knives over on Bladeforums -

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/kinfolks.1365136/

Rugerman -

It's hard to know, without documentation, whether a specific civilian model knife was used by a serviceman during the war. Some speculation can be made on the ones made with steel/plastic guards and pommels. Lack of or a paucity of ornamentation (colored spacers) can also point in that direction.

PAL bought the knife side from Remington in 1940. Any knife with the PAL/Remington stamped COULD have been used in the war. Obviously, ALL of them were not.

PAL made runs of the RH-36 for the Army BEFORE the Cattaraugus and CASE "Q" knives were designed/made. They weren't the only company from whom the government bought hunting knive as a stopgap measure. Eventually, the Navy went with 5" and 7", the Marines went with 7" and the Army with 6" as the "standard" blade lengths for their "spec'd knives".

When the war first began, a shortage of knives for military issue prompted a call for civilians to donate any hunting knives they could that had a blade length of 4 to 6 inches or more. A 2019 article from the San Antonio Express News tells part of the story -

https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/ ... 525669.php

Here is a thread about knives and WW2 being donated over of Bladeforums. A correction to my original post in the below thread link - it has since been determined that there was no real company called San Antonio Iron Works to which all the saber-made knives are attributed.



This picture shows a couple of soldiers sorting through a large pile of knives donated in the "Save a Life with a Knife" program mentioned in the above article. A thread about WW2 donated knives over on Bladeforums -

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/kinfolks.1365136/

[rugerman44]

The Pal 36 and Cattaraugus Q225 are 2 of the most prolific knives of WWII. I'm pretty sure the Pal's were private purchase. The blade is made from good ole carbon steel, so a magnet will stick to it and the blade can be made magnetized.

So i guess he bought it .Thanks for the info

[zzyzzogeton]

rugerman -

The original owner could have bought it, he could have been issued it through the donation program, which would have still been "issued", it could have been issued through "normal" channels if it had been from a large government contract purchase, he could have traded for it, he could have.....

Without some kind of documentation stating how the original owner came into possession of it, all we have is speculation.

We do have documentation from him in the form of a hand written note stating that THIS was his knife while on AD during WW2.

HOW it came into his possession is a question, but there is (to me) no doubt it is a "WW2 carried/used knife". And it IS a WW2 era knife that could have been carried then, Unlike various and sundry 1960 to 2019 model 20227 (post-WW2 "Kabar USN-MK2/1219C2) that so many try to pawn off as "WW2" or VN war era (late 1970s+ Camillus and Ontario 20227s) or 1973+ Westerns as VN.

I'd be very happy to have that knife in my collection.

[rugerman44]

Thank you for your reply. What gets me about the whole knife thing is the man that owned it served on the same ship that brought my dad home from the battle of Okinawa,I looked up the name of the ship uss Lavaca and that was in the history of the ship, My friends dad and my dad where at that same place at that time in history, wow that just blows me away, whats the chance of that ever happening.