Kabar F/U - new, oldish, older Camillus version

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Aug 24, 2006
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So I bought my lovely wife a USSF version of the Kabar F/U knife for Valentine's day, because what says I love you more than giving her something she could stab me with right?

That being said, this is the first F/U Knife I've bought since the late 90's.

When I was comparing the two I noticed that the handle on the late 90's version is a bit longer. Obviously the grind is different/higher on the newer one (I already knew about this change) but I was surprised at the handle length.

On a whim I decided to compare it to a 1945ish Camillus USN Mk 2 and, lo and behold, the USSF knife has a shorter handle (and obviously the Camillus has a round handle compared to the more ovoid handle on the USSF version).

I know that Kabar went back to the original/early spec grind on these knives sometime in the 2000 or 2010s, but when did they shorten the handle? I had assumed that since they went back to the original spec grind maybe they went back to the original handle length, but was surprised to find it was short even compared to an original Mk 2.
 
NC,my understanding is this:-
In the early 90's Kabar introduced the Next Generation models.
These had a thicker stainless guard, kraton G handle and teardrop shape pommel,model 1221.
The new Kraton handle was then put with the old standard guard and pommel to make the model 1211.

Due to the kraton handle being slightly shorter than the leather stack,when used with the thin steel guard and standard pommel,
the tang on the 1221 was too long.
So instead of molding a longer kraton handle(or putting spacers in it like the leather version),it was easier to make blade blanks with a slightly shorter tang,4 7/8inch.
This is why the kraton grip models with steel guards have shorter handles than all the others.

Also the WW2 models were changed from a threaded tang in the original specs ,to the Camillus designed pinned type.
This tang length was 5 1/8,if I remember correctly.

When Ka-Bar released the commemorative in 1976,they made the tang slightly shorter (5inch).
This was most likely a cost saving/design decision,but also had a side effect of a way to protect collectors
from true WW2 pieces to Repo models which the 1217 is.

So although Ka-Bar say the current knife(1217) is to the same specs as WW2,Its close,but not really as the tang
on the 1217 is shorter than the WW2 1219c2.

This info was related to me some time ago from Tooj when I asked much the same query of him.
Hope this helps:thumbsup:

Ka-Bar have made kraton in Black,Green,Tan,Blue,Zombie green(Cutco)
Why not a kraton handle in Pink?
 
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