MILK utility pocket knives

[dustin]

I recently obtained a series of board reports on the all metal utility knife from 1944 thru 1945. It has been my understanding that there has been some deliberation on the purposed of the stud on the screw driver blade. In one of the infantry board reports, September 1945, it is fairly specific on this detail. attached is figure. 5.

[jw517]

Very informative !

[Misfit 45]

That is great information. I have about 7 or 8 brass liner Utility knives from WWII and all of them have the wider stud. I would suspect that it took a few years to implement the narrow stud on the screw driver. In this picture, the left pocket knife is a post war Ulster blade marked with steel liners. On the right is an Ulster 48 with brass liners. Thanks for showing this document. It's going into my files.

Marv

[sactroop]

I also have a clevis marked ULSTER 48 with S marked on the back of the blades. I don't know if 48 refers to the year of manufacture or it might be a tag referring to complying to the MIL-J-818, ( no the J is not a typo), that was written in 1948. Still I thought I read somewhere that the specification changing the size of the stud was written in 1945. I haven't seen the MIL-J-818 or the older 17-170 specification. Would love to read them.

[Misfit 45]

Having seen a Kingston (U.S.-45) and a Stevenson-45, it would make sense that the Ulster 48 would have been made in 1948. It doesn't always work out that way though. I think dunstin was attaching the September 45 date to the infantry photo referred to by the test report that is shown. If that's the case, then the test report would be a little later still. That's pretty late in the war to immediately effect changes in the Kingston and Stevenson products prior to the end of WWII. Ulster, as far as we know, was not a war time producer of these knives (aside from the Kingston connection with Imperial). It would be interesting to see if there is a Kingston or Stevenson with the narrow stud. Just to make things more confusing, I have a Stevenson U.S.A. that has no stud at all! (possibly made from left over parts, who knows?) Thanks again.

Marv

 

BTW, what does the J stand for? in MLK-J-818?

[Frank Trzaska]

J=Jackknife

 

All the best

Frank Trzaska

[dustin]

here is some more fodder

 

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[dustin]

Here are the experimental types from 1944 tested by the Infantry Board as detailed in the a record of test of December 1944

 

[Misfit 45]

That is amazing. Can we assume from this that full production actually did not occur until 1945, rather than November 44 as I have heard and read? Also, Even though I have seen well used utility knives that have somewhat darkened blades, would it be correct to conclude that the Type 1 polished bright knives were the final version selected? (there is no mention of brass liners). Wow, this is quite a paradigm shift! The progression might be that the little knives were indeed made in November 1944 and it was then assumed by collectors that they were ISSUED in November 44. It could have been December 44 or January 1945 or later before the knives reached the troops. Thanks again, dustin. Great work!

Marv

[dustin]

I havent fully dissinemated the information yet a few hundred pages but the field tests concluded at the end of 1944 utilizing the three knives in Post#9. So from my limited preliminary cursory overview they were only experimental at the close of 1944. The doc in Post#7 is quite clear that issuance is projected in late 1945. The way it looks right now is the collector understanding is one year off base. The documentation I have starts in the spring of 1944 with indorsements for the knife's development followed by infantry board reports from late 1944 and several from 1945 each incorporating new design changes and testing.

I remember having some USMC knives with blackened or oxide blades and it appears this is the first type as noted in Post#8. I cannot really comment too much on this as I don't know a lot about these knives nor do I have any examples anymore for observation. Maybe next week I'll take the time to read it all and make an outline of the development progression. As far as I know the best article on these knives is titled The MIL-K Knife by Dennis Ellingsen and am not sure if anyone has done a follow up yet.

[dustin]

This is a cool entry in one documnet.

 

[dustin]

This doc only suggests the knife for standardization as of January 1945

[Misfit 45]

In post #7 the availability is projected as December 1945, but it also shows the photo of a SECOND version knife (screw driver opposite main blade) which also includes blackened blades. Do you think that the article might be referring to the availability of the second version knife, and the first version was already issued; awaiting full standardization?

Marv

Also, there are no studs on the screw drivers on the knives in post #9

[dustin]

here is a series of interest I think.

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