KA-BAR. in caps

eveled

eveled

Gold Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2016
Messages
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The word from KA-BAR is it should be all capital letters. I think it somehow protects their name. To stop it from becoming a generic name.

It seems like a small thing. But it’s the one thing they’ve asked from us. Yet nobody does it.

I say let’s all make an effort. Seems like a small thing to do to show our thanks.
 
Too late, it's already part of the vernacular, just like "coke" "xerox" "jacuzzi" "chapstick" "kleenex" "popsicle" "sharpie" "tupperware" "weed eater" "bandaids" "taser" "plexiglass" "styrofoam" "windbreaker" "stetson" "velcro" etc. etc. etc.

If you are selling one, then yeah, you should probably style it "KA-BAR®" just so people will know it's "authentic."

According to Wikipedia:
Ka-Bar (trademarked as KA-BAR, pronounced /ˈkeɪ bɑːr/ ) is the contemporary popular name for the combat knife first adopted by the United States Marine Corps in November 1942 as the 1219C2 combat knife (later designated the USMC Mark 2 combat knife or Knife, Fighting Utility), and subsequently adopted by the United States Navy as the U.S. Navy utility knife, Mark 2.[1][2][3] Additionally, Ka-Bar is the name of a related knife manufacturing company, Ka-Bar Knives., Inc. (formerly Union Cutlery Co.) of Olean, New York, a subsidiary of the Cutco Corporation.
...
Camillus Cutlery Co., the first manufacturer to supply the Ka-Bar Combat Knife under contract, also produced the largest number of such knives, producing over one million examples marked "Camillus.N.Y." on the knife's crossguard before the war ended.
​
 
What, did the clouds open up and there was an edict from KA-BAR? Does this just refer to the 1219 or all KA-BARs? Here's how I do it, if it has KA-BAR on the blade it is a KA-BAR. If it has Kabar on the blade it is a Kabar. There does need to be a distinguishing reference for different marked knives, and the KA-BAR company we have now is not really related to the old Union Cut Co who made the KA-BAR name famous although I think they'd like to be.
 
The capitalization is one of my pet peeves, but for reasons that may surprise you. The various styles of the name "KA-BAR" serve as a historical benchmark - to this day seeing "Ka-bar" and "Ka-Bar" make me cringe as they were marks used at a time when there was a great deal of turmoil and uncertainty within the company. "KA-BAR" was the legally owned trademark of Union Cutlery. As DrHenley states above, the name has become a generic term much like Xerox, Kleenex, etc. Soldiers, sailors, and Marines made the word "Kabar" interchangeable with "knife" as a cultural phenomenon, not so much Union Cutlery. Union Cutlery simply held the trademark and marked their knives "KA-BAR".
 
gunsil said:
What, did the clouds open up and there was an edict from KA-BAR?
Click to expand...

OFFICIAL_KA-BAR mentioned it in the Krew sign up thread, I was just passing it along and calling attention to it. It was obviously important to him. I figured it was the least we could do.

so no clouds or seas parted but it was a direct request.
 
Joe, I agree totally, I never use Ka-Bar, drives me nuts too. Like I said above, to me it is KA-BAR or Kabar, depending on what the blade says. I feel a need to differentiate between the eras and a bunch of guys for years call the newer (1952 on with lower case italicized Kabar) cahbars or kahbars, no hard K sound. I love the hard K of the proper (to me) term for the military issue and any with the KA-BAR marked blades.
 
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