Alaskan knife

[deltablade]

I just read a book about the Alaskan Scouts in the Aleutians inWWII. Reference is made to their survival skills, and in particular in their use of sheath/ hunting knives rather than military knives. What type sheath knives would an Alaskan hunter have used in the 1930'-1940s?

 

[KenHash]

Looks like typical stag handled hunter from that era.

 

[Yo Mama]

What was the name of the book? I am always looking for a good read

 

[BitingSarcasm]

I remember seeing an exhibit on those guys in the 70s as a kid. It was probably at the Anchorage museum, or Dad dragged me off to Fort Richardson--it has been way too many years ago. Anyhow, even then I was a bit of a knife nut so some of it stuck in my head. There were butcher-style blades that looked like Old Hickory; the striation/lines running parallel to the blade were about the same. The handles were mostly just local wood, some were antler, and one was walrus tusk. The only other thing that really sticks out is that all of the knives looked like 100 miles of hard road, they probably got donated at the end of their useful life. Note that there was no ulu. The round or curved blade shape was for women only, and a man found using one was about as shocking as seeing pink thong underwear on an NFL linebacker. It's not taboo anymore, but old ways die hard.

 

[tltt]

Not the 30's, but for some reason, the WWII theater knives that are attributed to that area seem to favor reworked Cattaraugus 225Q's. I'm sure it would look like the standard mix of Marbles Ideal and Woodcraft style knives, and various reworked kitchen knives as already mentioned if you got a good look at the mix.

 

[deltablade]

The book is Casters Cutthroats by Jim Rearden, an excellent read on a little known theater of WWII. As luck would have it, I have a reworked Cattaragus 225 that I found at a Texas antique show years ago, and noticed after reading the book that the back of the sheath is inscribed with 297th base, Attu, which puts the knife in the Alaska campaign.

 

[DocT]

It would be interesting to find out. Those were hardy souls. I spent time in the Army there 35 years ago and we were often out with the Native American Scouts that guard our frontier. They used whatever suited their fancy.

 

[kindasharp]

During that time period, maybe Pal, Randall, Cattaraugus, Marbles, just a few I think that would of been available and had good reputations for a durable knife.

 

[crom]

I knew a guy stationed in the Aleutians in WW2 I wish he was still here to ask him. He told me it was boring as heck.

 

[Nrthfce]

From my readings, Rudy Ruana basically built his knife business off of of two groups of users... Native American tribes and Alaskan hunting guides. Although, he didn't get the company started formally until 1937 or 1938 he had been making skinning knives while in the military himself for years before that official company birth date.

Credit Book: Hear the Hammer, and The Hammer Still Rings.

I own one of his knives with original sheath that dates back to right around the 1937- 1940 period...

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