seand1111 Posted November 24, 2020 Share #1 Posted November 24, 2020 Good Day all, I am obviously new here, but have been lurking around trying to absorb knowledge. Anyhow, i recently acquired a "sanitized" USMC Ka-Bar blade with the USMC Boyt 43 sheath. what i don't recall was why these were sanitized the way they were. Can anyone help explain this to me please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seand1111 Posted November 24, 2020 Author Share #2 Posted November 24, 2020 additional pics. someone went at it with a grinder at some point in its life, but they didnt seen to change the blade shape too much. i will clean it up a little and preserve it for my collection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Costa Posted November 25, 2020 Share #3 Posted November 25, 2020 sanitized??? only thing i can think of is the markings were obliterated on the scabbard and hacked from the blade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seand1111 Posted November 25, 2020 Author Share #4 Posted November 25, 2020 1 hour ago, Costa said: sanitized??? only thing i can think of is the markings were obliterated on the scabbard and hacked from the blade. yes, a number of blades were “sanitized” but I don’t recall the reason why. The hash marks over the Boyt is a tool (like a stamp?) that was used when they did this. They did it to both the USMC and the USN sheaths. I just can not remember why and I thought I found the info here at one time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Costa Posted November 25, 2020 Share #5 Posted November 25, 2020 may have been done to sell on the civilian market after the war. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmperorWangDong Posted November 25, 2020 Share #6 Posted November 25, 2020 Some didn't want to turn that trusty KA-BAR back into Uncle so this was their makeshift way of getting around that. Others have been scrubbed to sell on the civilian market as Costa mentioned, but this looks like like a home job to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doyler Posted November 25, 2020 Share #7 Posted November 25, 2020 Seen M3s in M6 scabbards with govt markings over stamped and even sanded off. Saw a Robeson USMC as well with the USMC ground of. I have a PAL USMC with the markings removed. I suspect it was something done for surplus sales to the civilian market as well. Way to many of them out there to be just randomly done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seand1111 Posted November 25, 2020 Author Share #8 Posted November 25, 2020 8 minutes ago, doyler said: Seen M3s in M6 scabbards with govt markings over stamped and even sanded off. Saw a Robeson USMC as well with the USMC ground of. I have a PAL USMC with the markings removed. I suspect it was something done for surplus sales to the civilian market as well. Way to many of them out there to be just randomly done. Do you have pictures? I would enjoy seeing them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seand1111 Posted November 25, 2020 Author Share #9 Posted November 25, 2020 27 minutes ago, EmperorWangDong said: Some didn't want to turn that trusty KA-BAR back into Uncle so this was their makeshift way of getting around that. Others have been scrubbed to sell on the civilian market as Costa mentioned, but this looks like like a home job to me. I seem to recall that possibly being the reason, as Costa noted. but I believe these were done by the supply depot or a department that was able to do them the same, as I have seen the same markings on another Boyt sheath. I just can’t get my google search good enough to find it again. Lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmperorWangDong Posted November 25, 2020 Share #10 Posted November 25, 2020 Still looks like there is plenty of 'meat' left on the blade to work with, l'd sure like to see it cleaned up when you get to it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sactroop Posted November 25, 2020 Share #11 Posted November 25, 2020 In the case of the USMC Robeson's there is pictorial evidence of the USMC being ground down and the U.S.N. being stamped over it. Even a couple of examples where signs of the U.S.M.C. stamping still remains under the over stamp. IMHO, I've come to believe that the obliterating of the branch of service markings were mostly done on an individual basis, with some instances of small batches being defaced at the unit level. Mostly out of ignorance and misunderstanding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustin Posted November 26, 2020 Share #12 Posted November 26, 2020 I think we see US Government property marks removed in many circumstances, on all sorts of things. I have a nice Mark 1 but it has the USN ground off. I think there is a lot to be said for sactroop's quote "Mostly out of ignorance and misunderstanding". Such as a fear of federal penalty for possession of government property, not understanding it was surplus. Yes, people were and are that naïve. An era where there was more respect and fear of the US Government. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKIPH Posted November 26, 2020 Share #13 Posted November 26, 2020 I believe they were obliterated for commercial sales post WW2. You do see a lot more when dealing with M3s (mostly Imperial), and M6 scabbards ( L&C tends to have the most). Back in the 60s, and early 70s, there was tons of surplus knives, bayonets and everything else released to the civilian markets. Perfectly good web gear when turned back in was sometimes marked by Magic Markers, or paint, and released to lots, for bidding by civilians. Also saw M5 bayonets that had blades cut in half. And, could be the previously mentioned circumstances. The scabbard is L&C. vertical Imperial has very faint partial stamp, the horizontal guard is Imperial obliterated. It's also nice to have a camera & able to use it. SKIP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seand1111 Posted November 26, 2020 Author Share #14 Posted November 26, 2020 Thank you everyone. Sactroop, I have seen your posts in other forums about this same topic as I have searched for more info. Thank you for the wisdom all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
collector Posted December 4, 2020 Share #15 Posted December 4, 2020 On 11/26/2020 at 12:05 PM, dustin said: I think we see US Government property marks removed in many circumstances, on all sorts of things. I have a nice Mark 1 but it has the USN ground off. I think there is a lot to be said for sactroop's quote "Mostly out of ignorance and misunderstanding". Such as a fear of federal penalty for possession of government property, not understanding it was surplus. Yes, people were and are that naïve. An era where there was more respect and fear of the US Government. Have seen that with 1911 1911A1s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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