Hi all,

I recently recieved an Imperial Non-magnetic US Navy dive knife - No 1020 of 1,156 such knives ordered by the Navy in 1961. The 7 3/8" blade is made of a tungsten cobalt alloy (Haynes Alloy No. 25). An interesting bit of kit -








Kind regards,

Bill

Congratulations on acquiring such a nice example .

Tim

Tim - thanks very much for the kind reply; much apprecaited.

Kind regards,

Bill

Very nice!!

Bill,

I am interested to learn more about the symbol seen in the fifth picture. It appears to be a downward facing arrow between two waves crests. Is this a proof mark applied by Imperial or is this a U.S. Navy acceptance mark for the knife?

Thanks for the education.

Tim

Same symbol here in Knife knotes 10, scroll down to the EOD knife.

http://www.usmilitaryknives.com/knife_knotes_10.htm

Thanks fo the link. Yes, the marking on the EOD knife is reminiscent of the one on the knife above. However, the one on the EOD knife appears to have been applied by electropencil and the downward "arrow" looks more like the letter "L". Perhaps just poor tip control on the electropenicling.

Tim

The symbol you're refering to is the "Nonmagnetic" symbol use by the US military during this period. Much appreciate the kind replies - thanks again !

Best regards,

Bill

That is a great example of a fairly uncommon (at least in the collecting world) knife! Great score!

thats areally nice knife. I have one just like it around the house somewhere. I must look for it . Do you know anything else about it? thanks j

hi again my knife serial # is 1050/61,,,,,,,,,any idea on value?.....thanks john

Very nice knife.

I hope this is within the rules of the forum, to discuss value ? I'd give a ballpark value of $1,000 to $1,400 - depending upon condition, provenance, etc. etc.

Kind regards,

B.

thanks for the reply...good luck in the hunt...john

any thoughts on how to find out who it was issued to?

These knives were not issued to any one person, but were "mission issue" and were then returned to storage / locker. According to the few articles (mostly by Frank Traaska) they were very tightly controlled - due to their high cost (and easy to ruin in regard to their antimag properties).

Kind regards - B.

thanks for the reply.....it appears that a few escaped . as one sold on ebay in september. I got mine at a flea market for 5 bucks

can anyone tell me the correct sheath for this knife as the one on this string is different from an earlier one ......thanks ..........always interesting chat.....john