Info on blade marked JPK with gray pommel

[Mossdancer]

Was just cruising some forums and ran across this interesting tidbit.
"Frank Trzaska answered the question about the painted pommels some time ago as follows:

Specification MIL-K-8662D dated 15 February 1966 called for the pommel to be painted. In the spec, it cited two reasons - camouflage?? and more importantly to prevent water from entering the tang and start a rust problem. The tang was to be peened and left in place only removing the sharp edges, not ground flush. Then four additional steps were taken to pretreat, condition, prime and paint the butt and tang area.

Specification MIL-K-8662E dated 7 June 1974 changed the specification to black paint from the light blue-grey used before.

Another one of those little bits of information that Frank seems to be so good at coming up with."

And that is pretty darn definitive. 1966 period on tang marked knives, unless there was an overrun of tang marks when the pommel mark started.
moss