Help with ID and Handle

D

DCBakr

Joined
Mar 1, 2021
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3
I’m hoping to find some info on this blade and the proper handle it needs. I’ve spent a couple hours looking online but still don’t have definite answers. A good friend found it in his parent’s house and gave it to my 8 year old son. I was going to make a handle for it, but my son says he’d like to have the right handle on it.
I’d really appreciate any help me with info on this blade?
https://photos.app.goo.gl/AgGfRpxqjRANT5r77

https://photos.app.goo.gl/YrKV2AtDtnWBLW8x8
 
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On early knives, the pommels were screwed onto a threaded tang and then peened. The threads could break under heavy use. Looks like that may have happened with yours.
 
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Lucky, you are referring to the MK2 knives and DC's knife is not one of those, it is a hunting knife. DC, your threaded portion of the tang which had a brass barrel nut is broken off so it will not be possible to put an original aluminum pommel on it. Your knife could have had stag scales or leather rings. I don't know where you could get an original KA-BAR aluminum pommel and barrel nut unless you get a donor knife. You might try ebay and look for a similar knife with a rusted blade that doesn't cost a lot as a donor but you would have to weld a new threaded piece on the tang to take an original pommel and nut. You are also missing the nickel silver guard. Restoring this knife to original is going to require time and money, not an easy task to find the original parts.
 
DC, this is what I am pretty sure your blade once looked like. The two holes in the tang are for stag handle pins, but I am unsure if the leather handled versions had the pin holes since I have never removed a leather handle on this model. Here is a stag handled one.

E27D4CAE-107A-40C6-B417-113605848B8F.jpeg
 
Than
gunsil said:
DC, this is what I am pretty sure your blade once looked like. The two holes in the tang are for stag handle pins, but I am unsure if the leather handled versions had the pin holes since I have never removed a leather handle on this model. Here is a stag handled one.

View attachment 1520621
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Thank you! I heard back from KA-BAR yesterday. They dated the blade to late 1920’s to early 1930’s but said they could not say with certainty what the handle would have been but bone/stag was a likely option. They could offer no help on parts and unfortunately, the pommel threads are broken off, so I think I’m just going to put an antler handle on it.
Thank you all for your help!
 
There is nobody at KA-BAR who knows a dang thing about older knives. The original company was sold three times, and their factory closed around 1976. There is nobody there from the original company. The most info they have in the form of old hunting knife brochures was donated to them by me. For instance that model was never offered in bone. I think mid 1930s at the oldest but discontinued by 1941 or 42. Requesting info on antique KA-BARs from them is unlikely to produce accurate info. Their historian is a good guy, they just have little info about products made before the 1980s -90s. P.S. Bone was only used on full tang knives, never on rat tail tangs like DC's knife, I would have hoped somebody at KA-BAR would have realized that.
 
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gunsil said:
Lucky, you are referring to the MK2 knives and DC's knife is not one of those, it is a hunting knife. DC, your threaded portion of the tang which had a brass barrel nut is broken off so it will not be possible to put an original aluminum pommel on it. Your knife could have had stag scales or leather rings. I don't know where you could get an original KA-BAR aluminum pommel and barrel nut unless you get a donor knife. You might try ebay and look for a similar knife with a rusted blade that doesn't cost a lot as a donor but you would have to weld a new threaded piece on the tang to take an original pommel and nut. You are also missing the nickel silver guard. Restoring this knife to original is going to require time and money, not an easy task to find the original parts.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the information. I thought that blade looked a little short for a MK2. :oops:
 
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