What is hiding in that old bayonet?

[GreatScout]

THEATER KNIFE: A HANDMADE OR ALTERED KNIFE MADE IN OR FOR A CERTAIN THEATER OF WAR.

So what we have is the "M3 Combat / Theater knife". They sell very good at local gun & knife shows... less so on ebay, although the price is steadily going up there. These are sturdy, solid, working knives that would take a beating in the field and do what they were designed to to. Light and fast in the hand.

We've all seen theater knives with plexiglas handles, and a couple of these Bobby cut out plexiglas washers to use at the guard and pommel as a nod to the past. Note: according to my research, most of the plexy handled theater knives were made by wounded, injured, recoving GIs as therapy.

The Guards shown on these are commercially produced, except for the Extreme S guard that I fashioned ala the style of those on German WW! trench knives. And one of the pommels shown is a commercial piece as well.

For your approval...

Phil

[carvin don]

Real nice GS, nice lil' history lesson there too.

[orvet]

Nice looking knives there Phil!
It gives me an idea or two for some WWII German dagger blanks.

Your guy did some nice work.

Dale

[Owd Wullie]

Bobbie's work looks great!

At one time I had about 50 of those old M-1 Garand bayonets. Back then they were worth nothing. I sold them and the old Enfield "Spike" bayonets with the scabbards for a buck apiece for use as tent stakes.

Times change.

Anyway, I fooled around with trying to make knives out of the old M-1 bayonets. Those things had no temper, were soft as butter, would bend forever and rarely break. You could get an edge that would cut sammiches and stuff but as soon as you got rough with it, the edge either folded or broke off.

I was informed later that the bayonets were made like that on purpose due to some quirk of the Geneva Convention that was to preclude their being used as knives.

Long story short. Wish I still had all those tent stakes to sell again. I never thought I'd see an Enfield spike bayonet selling for $25!! Maybe all those those I pooped off created a shortage.

[GreatScout]

I help a little, but Bobby does all the real work. He cussed me out recently; in these two pics you can see that I gave him one of the old Schrade USA BTO1 blades (heavy stainless, sawback). The thing is, those things were made of freaking forged stainless, and the steel is some of the hardest I have ever seen used on a knife. Destroyed two of my dies trying to thread the end of the tang. Bobby had to take his time and drill and pin the pommel in place.

Also in one of the pics is the Kinfolks blade marked M3 that my uncle carried across half of Europe. He came home on leave, prior to joining the task force being planned to invade Japan, and gave it to my father. Who gave it to me last week. I have hidden it from Bobby.

Other knife shown the three knife pic has a commecial pommel, and two brass spacers on the leather washer handle. Bobby was reading of the the advantages of shorter handled combat knives when he put that one together. It does make for a knife that is faster to handle, to change hand positions.

By the by... Ontario took over production of the Camillus M3 repro... and I was telling Phil Gibbs about them at the blade show. Every single one I have seen has the guard installed upside down. When they dragged all the Camillus stuff off to the Ontario factory, they should have taken at least one of the old cutlers. I bought dozen of them at discount for Bobby's use. Best new m3 repro I have seen and handled is the one by Boker. Beautiful.