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Theater-made knives source materials


Blacksmith
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Howdy friends - I've seen a lot of theater-made knives over the years, and notice a lot of common materials amongst them. Many of the materials seem to logically derive from vehicles, such as aviation plexi, aluminum, and so forth. The question I had for you all, is where the hard colored plastics may have come from. It's almost like micarta, or some similar material - usually very smooth. The most common colors I see are black and red, typically used to create stacked washer handles. Sometimes alternating pieces of clear plexi, black, aluminum, red, etc.

 

Thank you for any thoughts.

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I'm wondering if your talking about the same, (or similar), thing as the spacers commonly used in many production knives of the same period. Black and red where the most common colors for those spacers. I'm not sure about the exact composition for those spacers back in WW2.

Micarta has been around for the last hundred years or more and is a possibility for making knife parts during the War.

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Could be, but as the knives were made in the field during the war, I was wondering where they may have scrounged the material. Like possibly from electronics or ?

 

Thank you for the response.

 

I'm wondering if your talking about the same, (or similar), thing as the spacers commonly used in many production knives of the same period. Black and red where the most common colors for those spacers. I'm not sure about the exact composition for those spacers back in WW2.

Micarta has been around for the last hundred years or more and is a possibility for making knife parts during the War.

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My belief is that most WWII "theatre-made" knives were not made in the field, but were modified after the war, at home in the USA.

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Interesting point Bob, good food for thought.

 

My belief is that most WWII "theatre-made" knives were not made in the field, but were modified after the war, at home in the USA.

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Woodymyster

I have knives that were made during the war, but also understand your belief about alot being done afterwards. As far as the material the spacers are from, that material is cellulose based vulcanized fibre. This was used as electrical insulators, and plastics in general were being used to replace metals needed for the war effort. I would guess that since knife manufactures at the time used these spacers in their handles, those making knives found material to imitate those professionally made.

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Thank you Woody.

 

I have knives that were made during the war, but also understand your belief about alot being done afterwards. As far as the material the spacers are from, that material is cellulose based vulcanized fibre. This was used as electrical insulators, and plastics in general were being used to replace metals needed for the war effort. I would guess that since knife manufactures at the time used these spacers in their handles, those making knives found material to imitate those professionally made.

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There is a post on this site of WW2 sailors wearing the typical WW2 Theater knife. I downloaded the pictures. I will see if I can find the post. I imagine a large amount of the knives were made aboard Navy ships by Machinist Mates and others with access to materials and equipment. After the war knives were plentiful and cheap. Why make them in large quantities? Manufactures couldn't sell all the knives they had.

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Knife making has also been something done for ages.During the war many knives were made on the local level as well.These range in quality and you see some well known makers as well as unmarked examples that get labeled "theatre made ".Often unless you know the source of the knife it is difficult if not impossible to pin down when or where it was made.

 

I recall seeing old issues of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics growing up and other magazines that had "do it yourself" articles in them and it was common to see articles on home made knives.

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The problem of when and where that knife was made is often there with the label of "theater knife". I understand that some people have even made a study of what War time "plexi glass should look like.

I generally avoid the category for that reason. That being said every once and awhile I see something that just seems to speak to me, and I just can't resist bringing it home.

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Here are the pictures and articles from the original post. This is not my info but from a previous poster. Could not find the original.

post-157481-0-02976600-1493438590_thumb.jpg

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The article mentions a thousand odd knives aboard just one carrier. Multiply that by ships, bases, troops, etc. We are talking thousands of knives. The Navy would be some of the last to get manufactured knives. I know I served in the Navy for ten years.

post-157481-0-64193200-1493438889_thumb.jpg

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I have few hand made knives. It is hard to date them . Unless you have a name or documentation. I do have quite a few with the person's name or service number inscribed.

post-157481-0-69559000-1493439338.jpg

post-157481-0-51702300-1493439352_thumb.jpg

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Thanks for taking the time to post those pics, very interesting.

 

I have few hand made knives. It is hard to date them . Unless you have a name or documentation. I do have quite a few with the person's name or service number inscribed.

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The array of patterns of knives, they look to both be completely fabricated from scratch and/or modified factory types.

post-56-0-48238000-1493733915_thumb.jpg

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Blacksmith

Great pics Dustin, thank you.

 

The array of patterns of knives, they look to both be completely fabricated from scratch and/or modified factory types.

attachicon.gif knives 2.jpg

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IronJohnLogan

As a knife maker I been studying Theatre knives a lot lately.

As to materials, almost all of the knives that I have seen that are named and dated during the WWII are made up of clear plastics and aluminum / brass. Though there were plenty of opaque plastics around: mircarta, bakelite, different rubber based things - mostly used for electrical insulators etc.

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