Nice knife and a fairly rare example!hardman wrote:I should mention that while that is not my father's knife, he was in the Signal Corps during WWII.
I have always found the locking mechanism on this knife interesting. And I like the walnut handle scales.

The locking mechanism was changed by World War II, apparently there were enough problems with that lock that the military wanted it changed
Don't think the handles are walnut, I believe they are either rosewood or ebony. Rosewood is a very broad category of woods with dozens of different species including Cocobolo. There are a few varieties of Cocobolo, some of which can look like walnut especially after it's been used for a while.