Original Items: Only One Lot of 2 Available. This is a wonderful opportunity to add 2 genuine and famous fighting knives from WWII to your collections! A fighting knife has a blade designed most effectively to inflict injury in short-range physical confrontation. The combat knife and the trench knife are examples of military fighting knives.
Fighting knives were traditionally designed as special-purpose weapons, intended primarily if not solely for use in personal or hand-to-hand combat. This singleness of purpose originally distinguished the fighting knife from the field knife, fighting utility knife, or in modern usage, the tactical knife. The tactical knife is a knife with one or more military features designed for use in extreme situations, which may or may not include a design capability as a fighting or combat weapon. Since World War I, the fighting knife in military service has gradually evolved into a dual-purpose or "fighting-utility" knife, suited for both knife fighting and utility roles. As a consequence, the terms "fighting knife" and "tactical knife" are frequently employed interchangeably.
The Fighting Knives Included In This Lot:
- PAL RH 36: This is an excellent example of a service used U.S. PAL RH 36 fighting knife. This particular example was manufactured by the PAL Cutlery Company and is clearly marked on one side of the blade: RH – PAL MADE IN USA – 36. The knife is in good but worn condition, with the blade retaining about 30% of its original grayish parkerized finish. The blade shows only some light finish wear from insertion and removal from the composite scabbard. The blade appears unsharpened, and retains its untouched factory edge. The hilt is composed of multiple thin black leather washers. The washers exhibit signs of heavy wear and does have some cracking present. The blade has surface oxidation present.
The scabbard is the earliest leather version and is unfortunately missing the top leather button snap. Overall this is a very nice example of a wonderful PAL 36 USN combat knife with a nice scabbard. No collection of World War II US military knives is complete without a PAL knife.
- USN Mark 1 by Camillus: The Navy MK1 knife was used as both a utility knife and a fighting weapon. While some undoubtedly saw combat, particularly with Naval Aviators, these blades were mostly used for everyday functions aboard ship and ashore. The Mark I knives were Navy issued throughout WW2 and remained in inventory through the Vietnam war. They were purchased in huge quantities so replacements were not needed for many years.
From a collecting standpoint the beauty of the Mark I knives is in the wide variety of makers and blades that can be found. As for values, like most things USGI blades are evaluated based on scarcity and condition.
This knife is a nice solid example with all leather grip washers intact and present. The plastic butt cap is in great shape, with no major chips or dents, and is loose on the grip but has the ability to be tightened. The knife measures 9 5/8" overall, with a 5" clip point blade. Blade nicely marked U.S.N. on the ricasso and CAMILLUS N.Y. on the reverse. About 40% of the original blade finish remains, and there are no major chips or dings on the edge. Knife has been used and sharpened though.
The scabbard is the early MK 1 version, very similar in construction to the M8 scabbard for the M3 fighting knife, with a fiberglass body, metal throat, and canvas frog and securing strap. The front of the throat is marked U.S.N MK 1, and the rear is marked NORD - 8114 B.M. Co. with a stylized V P logo. The NORD number is for the US Navy contract it was produced under, which was delivered between March 1945 and May 1945. It was manufactured by Beckwith Mfg Co. a division of Victory Plastics. Scabbard is in good condition, though there is some staining on the canvas from corrosion to the brass and steel rivets.
No collection of World War II US military knives is complete without a Mark 1, and this is the perfect opportunity to acquire one with a great patina of age.
Both knives are ready to be displayed!
Dimensions (PAL 36):
Blade Length: 6 1/4"
Blade Style: Clip-point "Bowie" Style
Overall length: 11“
Crossguard: 2 1/16”
Scabbard Length: 6 3/4" with Belt Loop
Dimensions (Mark 1):
Blade length: 5 1/8”
Blade Style: Clip-point "Bowie"
Overall length: 9 7/8”
Crossguard: 1 1/4”
Scabbard Length: 6" Belt Frog
