a2jacketpatches
Active Member
Picked this up a few weeks ago thinking it was just a vintage knife but after some searching Ebay shows several listings calling it a WW2 Pilot Survival Knife, Is it?
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WW2 Pilot Knife????????
- Thread starter a2jacketpatches
- Start date
watchmanjimg
Well-Known Member
I'm thinking 1950s. This link may be somewhat informative:
http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ ... val-knife/
Regardless of vintage this is a fairly uncommon knife so you did well.
http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ ... val-knife/
Regardless of vintage this is a fairly uncommon knife so you did well.
a2jacketpatches
Active Member
Thanks, no pics but it sure sounds like it.
watchmanjimg
Well-Known Member
If you cut and paste the link in the USMF thread you can view some very nice pics.
a2jacketpatches
Active Member
Yeah, post WW2 anyway, followed the link from watchmanjimg and found some great photos of it and this is the one used during the Korean War, some were marked U.S. this one is not otherwise known as "sterile" No fuller or "blood groove" which by the way had nothing to do with blood ever, the term was and always has been a selling tactic.
jack31916
Well-Known Member
According to the book U.S. Military Knives Bayonets & Machetes from M.H. Cole, page 77, it's a U.S.N. Mk.1 knife as made from november 1943 onwards. There seems to be a lot of contractors and the only thing they agreed on was the lenght of the blade: 5,125".
Could be postwar but not necessarily so...
For what it's worth
Could be postwar but not necessarily so...
For what it's worth
a2jacketpatches
Active Member
Read something like that as well in the link I mentioned. Also goes on to say that this bridges the gap between a Navy Mark 1 and the Jet pilot knife, the one with the tan sheath, sharpening stone, and hex pommel that was used through Vietnam and to this day I think. the Mark 1's I've picked up in the past were all marked as such with USN as well.
Otter
Well-Known Member
I thought the USN ones were prominently stamped "USN" at the base of the blade on the opposite side to the manufacturer. http://www.quanonline.com/military/mili ... s/usnk.php.
Might well be a private purchase, they were a very popular maker, even made the capsule knifes for the Gemini programme.
Edit: Nope, I am wrong, that was Case and sons
Might well be a private purchase, they were a very popular maker, even made the capsule knifes for the Gemini programme.
Edit: Nope, I am wrong, that was Case and sons
a2jacketpatches
Active Member
Otter said:
From what i read they were stamped USN but these maintained the name and were used by the Navy but also the USAF. Like I said, bridged a gap there somewhere I guess. The design or the stacked leather washers leads me to believe it was intended for military service. At this point it's labeled a Korean War USAF Pilot Knife as all research points in that direction. Thanks all.....
jack31916
Well-Known Member
a2jacketpatches said:
I have no particular knowledge of knives so therefore I have to rely on the info of the book from Cole.
The Mark 1 knife seems to be a mysterious one. FYI this is the text in the book:
U.S.N. - Mark 1 & Related knives.
No two of the U.S.N. Mark 1 knives are the same, all are made different and all er marked different. So we have to put all of the Mark 1 and U.S.N. and other related knives of this type together so the collector can see how many of these he can put together and we're sure this is not all of them. Some of these knives with only the makers name could be a PX item, or commercial or even a post war knife. Who knows? The knife companies sure don't seem to know.
The original Navy drawing of the Mark 1 dated nov. 1943 calls for a blade lenght of 5,125", aluminum pommel held by a threaded nut, leather washer handle with colored fiber spacers at each end, blad stamped U.S.N. on the reverse and Mark 1 over the makers name on the observe, all metal parkerized. Not a single contractor followed all these specifications but "PAL" came closer than anyone else.
Just about the only thing the makers agreed on was the blade lenght. After that they took off in every direction. We find blades blued, parkerized and some polished bright. Some were ground flat, some were saber ground and some had a fluted blade. The handles were generally leather washers with some having fiber spacers at each end. "Colonial" made a black molded handle of hard rubber or plastic, the pommels were made of iron, plastic, aluminum and wood.
Ofcourse this is an older book (1979) and maybe more info has come up since. The book shows pen drawings of different makers and models of the Mark 1. Contractors shown in the book are: Camillus, H. Boker & Co., Colonial, Western, Imperial, Shrade-Walden, Ka-Bar, PAL, Geneva Forge Inc., Robeson,
watchmanjimg
Well-Known Member
jack31916 said:According to the book U.S. Military Knives Bayonets & Machetes from M.H. Cole, page 77, it's a U.S.N. Mk.1 knife as made from november 1943 onwards. There seems to be a lot of contractors and the only thing they agreed on was the lenght of the blade: 5,125".
Could be postwar but not necessarily so...
For what it's worth
As I understand it Cole got this one wrong and I believe this is mentioned in the USMF link I referenced earlier in the thread. The Mk. 1 is an altogether different knife in my experience.
The knife posted resembles the Marine Corps K-Bar. Below link describes "Camillus", mfr of the Mark 2.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camillus_Cutlery_Company
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camillus_Cutlery_Company
watchmanjimg
Well-Known Member
fl1946 said:
I agree there is some resemblance but this is a completely different knife than the Mk. 2.
