Opinion on Camillus Mark 2

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Is this blade marked Camillus Mark 2 exhibiting a blued or parkerized finish? The knife is original and unmolested.

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[mikedon]

Parkerized. Sometimes the Camillus Parkerized finish looks almost blued.

[sactroop]

Yes the WW2 Camillus parkerizing does often have that rather unique look to it.

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Interesting, I have a Ka-Bar USN Mark 2 with the same dark Parkerizing. Is that right?

[mikedon]

KA-BAR USN MARK 2's had 3 different blade finishes, blued, Bonderized, and Parkerized. Blued is the least common and Parkerized the most common. The KA-BAR Parkerized blade finish is similar to the Camillus.

 

I attached a picture of 3 KA-BAR MARK 2's with a Bonderized, Parkerized, and blued blade finish, (left to right).

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The middle one does look similar to my Ka-Bar and Camillus. Might be the oil that is making the blade look blued?

[mikedon]

From one of Frank Trzaska's Knife World articles, August, 2006:

 

 

"All of the Camillus made Mark 2s I have observed have a very dark, almost pure black, color on all the steel parts. Camillus actually purchased their Parkerizing chemicals from the original Parko Company. The trade name was Parko-Lube. After a few wipes with an oiled cloth the smooth black finish can fool even some of the best into thinking it might be a very dark bluing, it is t hat good."

[usmce4]

Here's a screw-top Camillus with that same dark Parkerizing. It's dry as a bone, cleaned with de-greaser in this pic, if I put oil on it, it's almost black.