Union Cutlery Co. AKA "KA-BAR"

[Greg Robinson]

Once this contractor got set up to mass produce the Marine 1219c2 knife this was how they looked in the early days. No longer were the leather handles hand formed and the plastic spacers were gone. In some cases the blades were still blued but this soon gave way to parkerizing. But they were still very well made knives. Here's one that has the early KA-BAR maker mark with Olean NY included. It also has the early thick heavy pommel attached to a round blade tang. And this one has the scarce early BOYT HARNESS CO dated scabbard. It would be an early to mid 1943 manufactured piece.

[Greg Robinson]

Here's an example of a mid war KA-BAR. It still has the thick heavy pommel but now it's peened on to a stronger rectangular blade tang. Markings are still on the blade but now the maker mark has been abbreviated to just "KA-BAR" without the Olean NY. And by this point in production they were all parkerized.

 

Scabbards are now unmarked leather.

[Greg Robinson]

This is the last pattern USMC 1219c2 made by Union Cutlery. It's a late war contract but apparently started before the govt changed the specification which now required markings moved to the guard. I assume they were allowed to finish the contract using the earlier spec.

 

It has dark charcoal grey parkerization, "fat" leather handle, thin pommel now pinned to a rectangular blade tang, and "small font" USMC markings. Those markings are noticeably smaller than on earlier patterns.