"Ka-Bar" sword in BudK catalog

The USMC Mark 2 combat knife was a Union Cutlery design modified with suggestions from a couple of Marines, and it was adopted by the Marine Corps on November 23, 1942. Union Cutlery produced the second largest amount of the design for the war out of several companies with contracts (behind Camillus), and their practice of using the KA-BAR stamp led to all of the Mark 2s getting generically called "Ka-Bars". Like all tissues getting called "Kleenex". Union Cutlery changed their name to Ka-Bar after the war to capitalize on the name recognition.
 
It's not too different from the jeep being produced by several companies for the war, but Willys trademarking the name and going on to produce Jeeps for the civilian market afterwards.

The sword-like-object that I posted is not too different in aesthetics from some of Ka-Bar's tanto designs. I'd like to see Ka-Bar produce a good-quality rendition for sale rather than whoever shovels out BudK's crap selling their craptacular crap.
 
SC- thanks for the additional info.
Unfortunately I can't think of a difinitive way to prove or disprove my or your version... however a little looking for Marine Fighting Knife instead of KABAR will turn up oodles of Mark 2'esq knives that were USMC issue well into the single digits of the 19th century... no big surprise if United mCutlery was smart enough to trademark the acronym early on, got involved in production and got a contract during wwii.

But we're diverging a bit here... my issue is that that SLO is tagged "US Marine" and it has no affiliation with the USMC....
 
atavist said:
But we're diverging a bit here... my issue is that that SLO is tagged "US Marine" and it has no affiliation with the USMC....
Click to expand...

you're right about that, but to be honest, I've seen a lot of "officially licsensed" and un-liscenced- junk knives,some masquarading as actual combat knives or folders, some just display items in a shadow box, wearing logos from pretty much every branch of the service sold by American sellers. It's kinda like Elvis or NASCAR stuff, anything they can slap a logo on, make a lot of money, and pay for the liscence they will- including a toilet seat. You can bet your ass ( :D ) they make a USMC logo toilet seat.
 
Yup, that was definitely not what I expected to see when I saw the link title. But it looks, like most of BudK's stuff, to be a Made In China thing, and we all know how much China cares about US patents etc. But would you be offended if someone made a replica of the USMC Mk2, and called it a USMC Mk2?

As far as the Kabar thing goes: http://www.kabar.com/about

There's a lot of substantiation for that side of things as well. My guess would be that it's certainly possible that a clever Marine noticed the stamp, was asked what it meant, and came up with the aforementioned abbreviation. It would seem unlikely to actually stand for Knife Accessory to the BAR, because it was issued to more Marines than just BAR operators, and moreover, also was designated the Mark 2. Why would they come up with yet another official designation for the blade, especially one that's ultimately misleading, as the Fighting, Utility aspect of the knife and the intent behind its design have nothing to do with the Browing Automatic Rifle? Just doesn't seem to add up to me, although I don't doubt that the USMC museum does indeed make mention of that meaning behind the word Ka-bar. It's worth mentioning that the term Ka-bar was in use by the Ka-bar company in 1923, 20 years before the advent of the knife in question, which again, would make it virtually impossible for Ka-bar to be a term stolen from the USMC by the Ka-bar corporation.
 
kaotikross said:
you're right about that, but to be honest, I've seen a lot of "officially licsensed" and un-liscenced- junk knives,some masquarading as actual combat knives or folders, some just display items in a shadow box, wearing logos from pretty much every branch of the service sold by American sellers. It's kinda like Elvis or NASCAR stuff, anything they can slap a logo on, make a lot of money, and pay for the liscence they will- including a toilet seat. You can bet your ass ( :D ) they make a USMC logo toilet seat.
Click to expand...

Both very true!
 
atavist said:
SC- thanks for the additional info.
Unfortunately I can't think of a difinitive way to prove or disprove my or your version... however a little looking for Marine Fighting Knife instead of KABAR will turn up oodles of Mark 2'esq knives that were USMC issue well into the single digits of the 19th century... no big surprise if United mCutlery was smart enough to trademark the acronym early on, got involved in production and got a contract during wwii.

But we're diverging a bit here... my issue is that that SLO is tagged "US Marine" and it has no affiliation with the USMC....
Click to expand...

Do you mean the 20th century?

There are oodles of US Marine Corps labeled consumer items that are really nothing more than bling. One could wage war with some sense of eliminating what some see as stolen valor or accept it as a compliment.

As to the BAR connection, I think one will find in the end it to be modern mythology. Along with the acronym, can you provide a mil spec number labeling it as such? Folk such as Frank Trzaska would be fascinated with that info and be glad to add it to rather authoritative military edged weapon sites.

Cheers

GC
 
I did mean 20the century.

As for mil spec nnumbers, a lot of issued items don't have mil spec numbers. The military isn't that well organized. Particularly if a small unit decides to use unit funds to issue something...
Not arguing about the origin of the mk2..
But as i said there were a lot of mk2 like knives before the mk2... I will continue to trust USMC history regardless of manufacturer claims, which are all financially driven.

For those who fought and bled the USMC is not just a branch of service. It's nigh on a religion. False claims of affiliation are just as offensive to us as a Buddy Christ (from Dogma) is to the Pope.
 
I remember seeing this blade a while back. It is a neat concept, but I do agree the choil and serrations are poorly placed( although, the short serrations have almost a comical effect that is somehow alluring). I would think it would be pretty sweet if Ka-Bar made something similar to this, not saying I would buy it, but I would think it would be neat to see it out there.
 
The more people that e-mail Ka-Bar about building a good version, the more likely they will do it. Their e-mail is on their website, and it took me literally about two minutes to write and send one. I had a response in about ten minutes. :)
 
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