Posted 01 August 2012 - 05:44 PM
The Ek Knives Serial Numbering System
The first number identified the model (or, “Style” number as Mr. Ek called it). A knife that is marked “2 B929” is a Model No. 2 knife. The letter prefix indicated the “thousands” (“A” = 1,000, “B” = 2,000, “C” = 3,000, etc.); so, B929 would be knife no. 2,929. While some collectors believe that each model had its own series of numbers, I agree with Mr. Mike Silvey who believes that all the models were in a common number sequence. A photo (No. 215) in Mr. Robert Buerlin’s book shows a Model No. 7 and a Model No. 6, which he describes as “two consecutively serially numbered, D237 and D236.” This strongly suggests that two different models were in the same series. The concept brings further implications.
The lack of an abundance of Hamden Ek Commando knives in today’s collectors market has been a subject of debate. Writer Steven Dick in a 1986 article on National Knife Magazine (“Where are all the John Ek Commando Knives?”) theorized that since they were not fancy knives in the style of the Randalls, when the GI’s came home they used them in their shops and tackle boxes until they were eventually discarded when they became ratty.
While that may be true in many instances, I believe that Mr. Silvey has the answer (see “Numbering System” above). It is widely repeated and generally accepted that John Ek Industries produced about 100,000 knives during WWII; however if you believe that the serial numbers were all models inclusive, like Mr. Silvey says on his subject article, the number would be closer to 30,000. While this production figure is still very impressive statistics for a small shop producing hand-made knives, it would help explain why there aren’t as many Ek knives around as you would think there would be.
Ten different Ek Commando knife models were produced in Hamden by hand. They all had rock maple grips attached to the tang with poured and hammered led rivets. The one piece blade, tang and butt was made from nickel-chrome moly steel, a very strong alloy that was made available to Mr. Ek when the availability of such alloy was highly controlled by the government due to being considered a strategic metal. This illustrates the importance that the U.S. government placed on the manufacture of quality military fighting knives in the same manner that the British government allowed the private sale of Wilkinson Sword Fairbairn Sykes knives. The quality was comparable to a custom knife and Mr. Ek made sure of that; I understand that one of his inspectors in Hamden was blind and he used his sense of touch for locating imperfections on the finished blades! And while it is true that they may not have the flair of a Randall, they are some of the WWII fighting knives most sought-after by collectors.
In 1949, four years after the end of the war, John Ek relocated the company to Florida. There he went back in the boat business, but not long afterwards he became the owner and operator of the Seminole Gun Shop in Miami along with his wife, Mrs. Elsa Ek, who had been in U.S. Navy Intelligence. He continued to supply knives to GI’s during the Korean War and later on during the Vietnam War. According to his son, Mr. Gary W. Ek, after some colleagues convinced his father to start making Commando knives again, at first Mr. John Ek only made these two models:
1. What used to be the Hamden No. 7 Jungle knife, which he renamed the Model No. 4 in Miami and…
2. A “Secret Agent” pen knife which had folding aluminum butterfly-type grips, later to be referred to as a Model No. 12.
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