USMC Fighting/ Utility knife questions

T

thatotherguy

Joined
Oct 9, 2011
Messages
2,189
I am curious about some aspects and features of the fullsize F/U.
1. Why is the blade slightly off center with the handle? It seems like the cut for the tang is deeper on one side than the other. It might just be mine.
2. Why is the guard bent backwards?
3.What is the spacer directly behind the guard made of?
Thanks in advance for the help.
 
Toooj answered your second question in the "Ask Toooj" thread, the other two I am not sure.

Toooj said:
Hi Gingivitis,

Here's a short history lesson on the USMC F/U knife. The guard was originally designed straight but during early use in WWII, it was found that when slogging through dense undergrowth such as found in the jungle, the vines and vegatation grabbed the knife around the guard and pulled it out of the sheath. The holding strap on the sheath secures the knife near the pommel. This allows some room for the knife to move up and down in the sheath. The solution was to place a slight backward bend to the guard which allowed the vegetation to slide off and not pull the knife out of the sheath. Note that the Navy Mark II has a straight guard. That bend was subsequently removed from the spec in later years. KA-BAR has chosen to keep that bend on the knife. If it is troublesome to you, it is relatively easy to straighten as the guard is not hardened.
Hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Paul Tsujimoto
Sr Eng
Prod Dev and Qual
KA-BAR Knives
Click to expand...
 
Thank you for the history lesson. I had always guessed that it more positively kept your hand from sliding forward and was less likely to hang up when thrusting.
 
thatotherguy,

To answer your questions:
1) The tang has always been slightly off center to the blade. This is for two reasons: The offset brings the handle centerline more inline with the point. The other reason is it allows more room for your fingers on the bottom side of the handle. The offset is more noticable these days as we turn the handle with a more oval cross section than the old WWII models (Which were round)
3) The original spacers were made from rubberized fiber material. As this material has gotten more difficult to secure, we have gone to molded plastic front and rear spacers.

Hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Paul Tsujimoto
Sr Eng
Prod Dev and Qual
KA-BAR Knives
 
Huh. The things you learn. Thanks, Toooj and thatotherguy. It's always interesting to delve into the "why's" of our favorite toys, especially when they were designed by the military of days gone by.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top