WWII or Vietnam War Buck Knife, Bowie style, J.F. Kahle SD

Y

Yosemite

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Oct 26, 2013
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I've got a Buck knife that I'm trying to evaluate for a neighbor of mine. This was amongst a group of WWII and Vietnam naval items, uniforms of one kind or another. This knife is in a leather sheath that is marked J.F. Kahle SD. The blade of the knife is marked only "BUCK". It measures about 14 7/8" long and appears to be in good condition but there are parts of the blade that seem to have some light porosity though I can't tell if that was in the manufacturing of the blade or not, it appears crisp and I guess the reason why I question whether it was in the manufacturing is because some of the porosity is next the stamp "BUCK" and the BUCK stamps seems very crisp, not worn down. Anyway..... I am trying to evaluate this and determine a price range that it would be worth. It is not currently for sale so I don't want to get involved in pricing it as such, I'm just looking for any information I can get about what it is and a value range so I can report back to him and then try to buy it. I sincerely appreciate any opinions on the matter.

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Welcome to the Buck Forum. It's your first post so you probably have not read the forum rules.
Questions concerning value may not be asked unless you are a paid member, Gold or higher.
That said, this is the right place to ask if this knife is really a "BUCK" knife.
I've never seen anything like it and will be interested to hear other opinions about it.
Matt Jannusch told me once that Chucks brother Frank liked to make big crude bowies.
It's certainly not a factory knife but the guard and serrations have similarities to a 124 Frontiersman.
 
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Yosemite, some of the questions your asking can't be answered here, such as a price range, due to your member status. I can tell you about your knife. The knife is obviously a pre factory Buck knife. Based on the shape and design of the knife I'm almost certain that it was made by Frank Buck. Frank Buck was the brother of Chuck Buck and the son of Al Buck. Chuck, Frank and Al all made knives in the late 40s and 50s, all the way until Buck knives incorporated in 1961. Frank Died in a Car accident and his knives show up every now and then. Frank was known for his large Bowie style knives. He made some ridiculous knives in his time and they all have one thing in common, size. This knife appears to be what the Frontier/Nimo was possibly based off of. The blade was most likely made from a large Saw blade. During that time knives were made from high carbon steel items such as saw blades and files. Due to the high carbon content these knives had pitting or porocity that was visible. The handle is some sort of hard wood, probably whatever they had laying around. Its not one of the woods typically seen in pre-factory Buck knives. Frank usually strayed from the norm though. The sheath is made by J. F Kahle, they were a Prominent saddle and harness shop that occupied the ground floor of the Brooklyn Hotel. It was a cowboy/Victorian hotel built in the late 1880 and later became known as the Kahle Saddlery Hotel where Wyatt Earp lived most of the seven years he resided in San Diego.

Buck knives used this companies products when they couldn't make a sheath for the knife they built. These sheaths are Rare.
 
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Thomas Linton said:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/742781-Frank-Buck-Question



http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/401174-Is-this-bowie-really-a-pre-factory-BUCK
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Frank made knives into the 60s, because although Buck incorporated, they continued to produce custom knives until the early 80s. You could walk into the shop with a piece of paper with a drawing of a knife and have it built for you. Frank Buck died in 1973 after crashing his Corvette.
 
Matt: OMG!!! You have an outstanding grasp of days gone bye. WOW. Time travel via the Buck Forum and mbjannusch. Thank you kindly for the vintage information. The good stuff delivered to your computer. :)
 
Its pretty cool to see some of the stuff of the early days and how crude it is compared to todays Buck knives. I love collecting the Pre factory stuff its just expensive...
 
sharp dude said:
ugh ..
so there are no ww2 buck knives ?
only Vietnam ones?
what about Korea ?
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Group one knives made the WWII time frame. The beginning of WWII was 1939 and time line of a group one knife is " Late 30s to 1946". Even when Hoyt wasn't in the knife making business and still making potato hoes, he still built knives and gave them as gifts without marking them BUCK...
This is why we need to be able to identify the charistics that make Buck knives, Buck Knives. Are you going to pass up a knife that looks just like a Buck, because it doesn't say Buck, or are you going to snatch it up and research it, to see if you found the Holy Grail.
 
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mbjannusch said:
Group one knives made the WWII time frame. The beginning of WWII was 1939 and time line of a group one knife is " Late 30s to 1946". Even when Hoyt wasn't in the knife making business and still making potato hoes, he still built knives and gave them as gifts without marking them BUCK...
This is why we need to be able to identify the charistics that make Buck knives, Buck Knives. Are you going to pass up a knife that looks just like a Buck, because it doesn't say Buck, or are you going to snatch it up and research it, to see if you found the Holy Grail.
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The OP's knife is marked "BUCK."
 
Thomas Linton said:
The OP's knife is marked "BUCK."
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What are you saying? I was answering the question from Sharp Dude, the post just above my last post.

I was expressing the point of being able to identify the features that make Buck knives what they are.
 
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mbjannusch said:
What are you saying? I was answering the question from Sharp Dude, the post just above my last post.

I was expressing the point of being able to identify the features that make Buck knives what they are.
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Da' Dude didn't ask about any particular knife. May I take it, therefore, that "you" in your sentence "Are you going to pass up a knife that looks just like a Buck, because it doesn't say Buck, or are you going to snatch it up and research it, to see if you found the Holy Grail [?' was a statement of an abstract principle that applies to a hypothetical knife that might be an early Buck sans markings?
 
mbjannusch said:
What are you saying? I was answering the question from Sharp Dude, the post just above my last post.

I was expressing the point of being able to identify the features that make Buck knives what they are.
Click to expand...

Da' Dude didn't ask about any particular knife. May I take it, therefore, that "you" in your sentence "Are you going to pass up a knife that looks just like a Buck, because it doesn't say Buck, or are you going to snatch it up and research it, to see if you found the Holy Grail [?' was a statement of an abstract principle that applies to a hypothetical knife that might be an early Buck sans markings?
 
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