Montana Power Company Knife

[thorin6]

This knife was made by two companies, Montana Power Company and Anaconda.  A complete description of their collaboration can be found at the link:

https://plowshareforge.blogspot.com/2009/06/montana-power-co-knife.html

One of 1200 made in 1942-1943 and given to men departing for service or passing through Montana, this knife shows little if any wear but the blade shows staining.  It has an 8-inch blade made from a power saw blade and an aluminum cast handle and guard with a lanyard hole. I believe it still has the original sharpening on the blade and the point.  I did not get a sheath with this, but in the link you can see what it looked like.  There is the number 112 stamped in the handle but I have no idea what the number means.  These knives are mentioned in Bill Walter’s Book II on page 79.

[bbmilitaria]

Very nice!!

[thorin6]

I thought I'd add a photo showing how the Montana Power Company Knife compared to a Marine Fighting Knife (Ka-bar) and a V-44 (Case).

 

 

[Rancid Polecat]

That one is in nice shape. I have the exact same knife except that mine is stamped #81. I'm guessing they started out serializing them and gave that up early on? Most of them I've seen are not numbered, and some have the lanyard hole and some do not. Also the original sheaths don't seem to have been made with a keeper strap, mine has no sign of ever having one and I don't recall seeing one on an original sheath. I can send someone a photo if they want to post it.