Unmarked M3

[1srelluc]

I found this M3 this morning at the flea market for $60.00. The blade/guard is unmarked, neither show evidence of grinding away of markings. The pommel shows the ordnance bomb/inspector's marking. It came in a M8 sheath.

 

I suspect it was something done post-war. It's still in good shape and tight.

 

Any thoughts?

 

 

 

[SKIPH]

My guess is it's an Imperial. All of this is based on the finish, the handle shape, and the rounded edged pommel. But, it is only

a guess. Imperial didn't waste many parts during or post WW2. SKIP

[sactroop]

IMHO, it's going to be a curiosity. With the mass production of these knives I'm sure there isn't much of a way to establish exactly when it was put together. The chance that a sterile guard may have still been in the pile of otherwise stamped guards certainly is possible. We can say that it was assembled when there was a supply of ordinance stamped pommels available. Either way great find at a great price.

[brad k]

I"ve got one also, I have always thought these were a transition from blade marked to guard marked knives assembled when new and old parts were mixed together.

[1srelluc]

IMHO, it's going to be a curiosity. With the mass production of these knives I'm sure there isn't much of a way to establish exactly when it was put together. The chance that a sterile guard may have still been in the pile of otherwise stamped guards certainly is possible. We can say that it was assembled when there was a supply of ordinance stamped pommels available. Either way great find at a great price.

 

 

Were the marked pommels from disassembled knives or were the pommels just inspected/marked prior to assembly?

 

Not knowing any better I always thought such marks were applied when the knife was completed.

 

There looks to be some other mark at 12 o'clock on the pommel too but i can't make it out.

[sactroop]

When the inspection stamp was applied to the pommel is and has been a point of discussion before. Some have claimed that there are pommels that don't show the inspection stamp because they were stamped before final assembly and some of them were installed upside down. Maybe, I haven't seen an example. Maybe someday I'll run across an example in rather poor condition were the leather has rotted to the point where I can see the back side of an otherwise sterile pommel.

I doubt that many knives were taken apart just to be reassembled again.

[1srelluc]

When the inspection stamp was applied to the pommel is and has been a point of discussion before. Some have claimed that there are pommels that don't show the inspection stamp because they were stamped before final assembly and some of them were installed upside down. Maybe, I haven't seen an example. Maybe someday I'll run across an example in rather poor condition were the leather has rotted to the point where I can see the back side of an otherwise sterile pommel.

I doubt that many knives were taken apart just to be reassembled again.

 

 

Me either as I suspect there would be some sort of documented refurb program for M3s were that the case if you go by the various and well documented refurb programs of US military bayonets.

[sactroop]

The only things I'm aware of were cases of looking into transforming M3's into M4 bayonets. The initial conclusion was it wouldn't be cost effective. Later there was a program after the war this was done taking advantage of, (at the time), cheaper wages for foreign workers.

[SKIPH]

Post WW2 there was a program , according to Coniglio's book, that painted guards and pommels black if rusted, and blades were

dipped into a black parkerizing solution. Leather handles were coated in a preservative if they were intact. There was no program

to refurbish rotted leather handles. There were M3 blades that were converted to M4 bayonets, believed to be done in Japan, post

WW2. I own a blade marked Camillus, and an RCC that were converted into M4s. SKIP

[1srelluc]

As it would have it a local pawn shop took in a "parts" M3 with what looked to me to be a "new" 6-groove handle, black painted unmarked guard, and in a M8A1 sheath.

 

No blade markings, and it was very obvious that the pommel had been removed and then reattached when it got it's new handle even though the ordnance bomb was still visible.

 

My example is hands and feet better than that cobbled together thing.