All About Pocket Knives

Not a folder but it is a knife. This was my fathers before it became mine. It came into my possesion in May of 1955 and I know this because it was a "package deal" where my dad gave me his Daisy BB gun and the hunting knife. And so I've had this knife for over 61 years and it has seen a lot of use in that time. It even toured with me in Vietnam when I was busting the bush with the 1st Infantry Division as part of the 2/28th Infantry regiment. It has also been used as a "digger" when coin shooting with metal detectors. The knife has been through the gamut of uses and held a secret that I, evidently, hadn't noticed in all those years.

Two weeks ago I opened a box of knives that was laying around and decided to lube them up and touch them with a stone to clean up their edges. While working on them I remembered the trusty hunting knife that was stashed away with my metal detecting gear and dragged that out as well. It was in decent shape but was dirt encrusted from the guard up. A few minutes of cleaning suddenly revealed something that I had never seen before...on the underside of the guard (blade side) and on the edge side were the stamped in words: KA-BAR and beneath that was : Olean, N.Y.

No, it's not a fighting knife. The blade is 5.75" from guard to tip and the OA is 10.5". The handle is stacked leather wirth the exception of some sort of plastic just above the guard and just before the butt. The butt itself is aluminum and the blade tang is peened into the butt to secure the assembly. The sheath is original though requires stitching to be redone and has no markings on it other than the leaf pattern embossed on it. The only markings on the knife are as described.

So here are some pics. If anyone can ID this thing to a manufacture date or even model that would be way too cool.

Sorry I can't provide any further info, but thanks for sharing, alot of history attached to that knife! Looks to be in pretty remarkable condition for having seen such hard use over many decades as well. Hopefully you have someone in mind to pass it down to that will keep the story alive...

That's a honey right there. Congrats on hanging on to it all these years.

Very cool Bill! The story is the best.

I'd print the story and place it next to the knife in a frame. Too cool.

Bill what a treasure you have. That knife has served you well, I was glad to hear the story and see the pictures.

Harold

Its a ww2 Kabar commando. Made in 2 versions 6" bright blade and parkarized blade. Basically a scaled down MK2. Most were made in 1943. not near as many of these "commandos" were made as the MK2's. Google and you can see what the original sheath looked like, they came with very heavy duty leather. The sheath you have is Western cutlery.

Eye Brand Man wrote:Its a ww2 Kabar commando. Made in 2 versions 6" bright blade and parkarized blade. Basically a scaled down MK2. Most were made in 1943. not near as many of these "commandos" were made as the MK2's. Google and you can see what the original sheath looked like, they came with very heavy duty leather. The sheath you have is Western cutlery.

Wow! The old knife now has a name, a model and a date! Fantastic!

When I said the sheath was original I probably shoud have said it was the one that it was always in as far as I knew. My father wasn't in the military but had acquired some "souveniers" from both wars via friends that did serve. It may have come to him that way or was purchased at a surplus outlet after the war. I never asked. Mystery solved and thank you very much!

Attached is the only photo I know of that involves this knife in RVN. We'd just got into FSB Mahone that day from a lengthy mission in the Trapezoid performing S&D's plus securing Rome plow operations. I'm the shirtless guy sitting on the bunker dressing up the edge on the knife while conversing with the platoon sargeant. The rest of the guys sitting around were my squad. Too bad the knife isn't more visible rather than a gleam from the blade.

Good picture. Thanks.