WWII Kabar Mark I Questions

[capt14k]

I see Ka-Bar Mark I knives with USN mark and without USN mark both without fuller. Also seen without USN mark with fuller. Why is it some of the Ka-Bar Mark 1 aren't marked USN and why do some of those have a fuller?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[SKIPH]

Good question! Not sure of a specific answer. Most MK1 makers pretty much freelanced their own knife designs, since there was not a specific requirement other than the 5" blade, unlike the MK2s. All makers offered something different. As far as Ka-Bar MK1s, can only guess that like other makers, some had the USN stamped on the blades, others did not, even w/ the same model knife, (Camillus comes to mind). As far as the fuller, maybe Ka-Bar found that the blades were weaker w/o the fuller, and started to incorporate, just before production ended. Just a guess, and my opinion. SKIP

[sactroop]

I've always found the mark 1's interesting in that there were so many in numbers and manufactures, yet in spite of that there really is so little in documentation and other hard facts.

[Frank Trzaska]

Not all of the KABAR knives were for the Navy, they made the design for the Army as well as the USMC so did not use the USN or the MARK 1 designation on those knives. KABAR was very liberal in the building of these knives and used a lot of different designs, spacers, pommels, blades etc. It was a 5 inch Hunting Knife and designated as so.