All About Pocket Knives

What can anyone tell me about these two 1184 Kabars?
The lighter colored knife appears to have delrin handles with one pin, the darker one, 3 pins in the handles but I'm not sure of the handle material. The bolsters are totally different and the darker handled knife is much thinner over all.
I guess they were made in different periods and one is an "improvement" over the other or is it the opposite, a cheaper produced knife with same model number? Any thoughts on age of either?
Thanks,
Treefarmer

Both, in my opinion, are delrin. The lighter appears to have shorter secondary blade. A coupla other things but I'll let others respond.

How can I tell the age of my knife?
If the blade of your knife is marked with a four-digit code, you may be able to find it on the list here. If you can't find a product code, we may be able to help you identify your knife using photos. Please shoot both sides of the blade, note any unique markings, measurements, etc, and send it to [email protected]. Please allow a couple weeks for a response... sometimes these things are really tough to pinpoint.

Kabar knives are often very difficult to date. As buck16 said they are both delrin.

I do not recall ever seeing a Kabar with a script stamp and pattern number that had a natural handle material other than genuine stag. I would say the bottom knife is the newer of the two. It is quite different in the configuration of both the head and tail end bolsters. Just like the Case 65 pattern folding hunters I think the scalloped head bolster indicates an earlier knife.

Not a Kabar expert by any means though I think there are some here that would qualify as such.

Wayne

It's already been noted that both handles are Delrin® so no more needs to be said about that. When in doubt Philip, use this image and your 45x microscope to differentiate bone from Delrin® (or other synthetics) It makes life a lot easier. Besides the other differences that have been mentioned, take a look at the blades. At least in the pictures, the saber grind is slightly different on the main blades and the main blade spines have a different profile from where the swoop to the point starts, back to the tang. It also looks to me like the jigging of the Delrin® is slightly different.

My hypotheses is they were made by different companies.

I agree, they are both different eras and different manufacturers, by those years Ka-Bar was more heavily involved in contracting out its knives.

Thanks for the help and advice ! I understand the practice of contract knives and found not too long ago my 1st Robeson was really a Camillus . Is there a good chance these 2 Kabars were also a Camillus produced pieces?
Treefarmer

treefarmer wrote:Thanks for the help and advice ! I understand the practice of contract knives and found not too long ago my 1st Robeson was really a Camillus . Is there a good chance these 2 Kabars were also a Camillus produced pieces?
Treefarmer

Lower one at least is Camillus - note the lack of handle pins

knifeaholic wrote:

treefarmer wrote:Thanks for the help and advice ! I understand the practice of contract knives and found not too long ago my 1st Robeson was really a Camillus . Is there a good chance these 2 Kabars were also a Camillus produced pieces?
Treefarmer

Lower one at least is Camillus - note the lack of handle pins

Wouldn't that make it a Schrade?