All About Pocket Knives

Had a Christmas/New Year dinner with my son and his wife today. They have been giving me some used knives for a year or so as gifts rather than NIB knives that I can't fondle and play with with a good conscience . Today they presented me with a Kabar coke bottle style folder that I haven't been able to identify. The knife is 5 1/4" closed, with a 4" clip blade. It has only Kabar for a tang stamp on the mark side, no model #. It looks like it has been cleaned up and I think the bolsters, liners and back spring are stainless steel, not sure about the blade as it has a few small pits on each side of the blade? The scales are smooth, black composition and also appear to have SS pins. I asked my son where it came from and he said he couldn't give away his secrets . I suspect e-bay .

Is this thing a real Kabar and where and when was it made ? Thanks in advance for any information y'all might provide .
Treefarmer

I don't see that exact tang stamp on the data page I pulled from the tang stamps thread

I wanna know as well

I've seen that tang stamp before but unfortunately I can tell you nothing more than that. If I were asked to guess (and I never am but I do anyway) I'd say genuine '50s - '60s.

Good looking knife Phil.

Cutty,
Thanks for posting the tang stamp chart. There are 2 similar stamps in the chart, both have the same "font" as my knife, that is the little "hook" that extends to the left of the vertical line in the "b" in Kabar, however both stamps in the chart have STAINLESS below the Kabar stamp. They are the ones dated 1955-1965 . I'm also puzzled by the different spelling of the name, KA-BAR and Kabar? Just hopin' this big boy ain't slipped in under the fence from China or some other off the wall place !
Treefarmer
edit: Thanks Jerry, didn't notice your response. Were there "laws" concerning identifying the country of origin on knives with a stamp, tag or etch?

Treefarmer here is a site that might be interesting.
http://api.ning.com/files/UrK90gc1JT5Lw ... utlery.pdf

Man the news get around! Neat to get a response from half way around the world .
Shearer, on page 5 of the Ka-Bar info you posted, there is what I assume is a typo, the 10th line down, Akbar(lowercase letters), probably should be Kabar(lowercase letters) 1951-1970's, that gets me a little closer and almost lines up with Cutty's charts with tang stamps, the lowercase letters and the approximate dates.
Thanks my Australian knife friend .
Treefarmer

treefarmer wrote:Cutty,
Thanks for posting the tang stamp chart. There are 2 similar stamps in the chart, both have the same "font" as my knife, that is the little "hook" that extends to the left of the vertical line in the "b" in Kabar, however both stamps in the chart have STAINLESS below the Kabar stamp. They are the ones dated 1955-1965 . I'm also puzzled by the different spelling of the name, KA-BAR and Kabar? Just hopin' this big boy ain't slipped in under the fence from China or some other off the wall place !
Treefarmer
edit: Thanks Jerry, didn't notice your response. Were there "laws" concerning identifying the country of origin on knives with a stamp, tag or etch?

Phil, it's been KA-BAR, Ka-Bar and Kabar. According to a source June Bug posted, Kabar (lower case letters) was from 1951-1970s. Don't worry. It's not Chinese.

"Under §304 of the Tariff Act of 1930 as amended (19 U.S.C. § 1304), every imported item must be conspicuously and indelibly marked in English to indicate to the “ultimate purchaser” its country of origin."

Treefarmer, I don't know if this helps, but I had one very similar to yours that was part of my "shaw-liebowitz" set of knives. I do not have pics anymore due to a hardrive crash, but if you search my posts, you can find a pic of my knife under " shaw-liebowitz" thread, to compare it to. My knife was made in about 1974. Hope this helps, Tim

I can't help you on this one Phillip, but I sure do like it!!

timgreene48, Rummaged through some Shaw-Liebowitz info and saw a Kabar like mine with a fancied up blade. It had a pattern number, I think it was an 1177. Those S-L embelished knives are way, way out of my league ! Thanks for the heads up on them.
Thanks TJ, my son's learnin"!
Treefarmer

I have several KaBar knives that have the logo almost identical to the OP knife except there are the words Cleveland Ohio stamped beneath the logo. These are modern style lockbacks that were made in Hong Kong but seem to be of decent quality.Not sure of the time frame though.