MK1 225Q

[camillus]

got a question, I know some military knives are commercialy made, are the MK1,225Q commercialy made and ARE THE military PAL RH 36 commercialy mad e thanks

[bayonetman]

1. Most of the USN Mark 1 knives were just 5" commercial knives that were taken into military service. In some cases there were slight changes made during the war, mostly to use less critical war materials such as brass and aluminum. Following WW2 many of the companies again sold them on the commercial market.

 

2. The Q knives were actually a military design originating in WW2. After the war Cattaraugus and Case continued to sell them commercially for awhile, but were possibly just using up stock materials on hand.

 

3. PAL had bought the Remington cutlery tooling and machinery and set it up in a new plant just before the war began. I believe they sold some of the RH 36 knives prior to supplying large numbers during the war and they were sold commercially after the war until the plant was closed in the early 1950s.

 

Most of the knife companies had some problems following WW2 as a lot of the military knives came home with the soldiers and the market for knives was fairly soft for some years. Most of the 5 and 6 inch knives were either kept by the servicemen or sold off as surplus shortly after the war which significantly lowered the demand for new sheath knives.

[camillus]

thanks, what companys made the MK1 besides PAL.

[bayonetman]

USN Mark 1 knives were made (and marked USN or USN Mark 1) by Boker, Camillus, Colonial, Geneva Forge, Imperial, Ka-Bar, and Robeson. Similar 5 inch blade knives sold to the military but not marked as USN were made by Kinfolks and Western.

 

The Mark 1s are a collecting field all their own, as the knives changed during the war with marking variations, finishes (bright, blue, Parkerized), materials changed for the pommels and guards (brass, steel aluminum, plastic and wood). One collector that I know has 26 variations and has others that he knows exist but he does not yet have. Also there is quite a bit of variation in the sheaths, known to have been made by Atlantic Manufacturing, Boyt Harness, Brauer Brothers, Mosser Leather, A.L. Siegel and possibly others before shifting to the Beckwith/Victory Plastics plastic version. Most leather sheaths were not maker marked, and it appears that at least in some cases the knife makers used whatever sheaths were available so that ones by the same maker can be found in different sheaths.

[camillus]

is there any way to tell the difference between a RH 36 made for the military and a pre or post war commercial one same for the Q knives thanks Mike