. Funny what you find while looking for something else . . . . . . .    Looking through my Jeep spares today for something else I re-discovered this take-off  ' F ' marked Ford hand-brake handle.  Somedays it's fun searching through old spares containers, found several other pieces I will be making use of, and memorised other pieces that might be needed in the future.        Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,   June 17  2024.    ...

Warpath, nice display!  Some interesting observations about these knives.  The SF Crest on the guard is not always on the handle side of the knife.  There must have been some inconsistencies in manufacturing, because many guards are opposite on these knives.  Some have the "Japan Sword" on the handle side of the knife, and some have the SF Crest on the handle side.  At first I thought someone might have disassembled the knife and put the guard back on opposite to how it was originally assembled.  But after looking at many examples, there are just too many one way or the other.  Thanks for sharing the Indonesia example Widukind1971.  

One would think having a rotor blade directly under you would make it less than popular.

Indeed, post war reproduction, 70's judging after the blade grey powder (parkerized) : black plastic in between cross guard and leather washers, as well on the pommel, most probably full pin on the pommel. Also, the ends of the cross guard seem to be flatten (or straighten), normally they were bent down.

Hello, guys.   I know that you have come with military versions of Western Cutlery CO, I also have the Western G46-8 in mint conditions, but I would like to share with you a commercial small Western knife (not mine), which accordingly with the ricasso stamp is it a later version (after 1977). What's interesting is that on the sheath is written '' 1940 Artur N K'', but I do believe that it was done on purpose to be sold as WW2 period.   What do you think about that?

Hello, I am known on the internet as ataru0000. I collect anything Tiger Stripe as long as the camouflage is from Vietnam era. I may showcase mine here soon, but for now I am looking to buy some tailor-made pieces. See you guys around.

Beautiful set that you don't come across very often. Made in Japan, isn’t it?    Did you know that it is a copy of a real fighting knife that was made in the 1950s, by the Indonesians, and later used by Indonesian paratroopers in Papua New Guinea against the Dutch? Papua New Guinea being a kind of Vietnam avant la lettre…   Unfortunately for those pitiful bas…, we were supported by the local population of Papua New Guinea. Their male soldiers formed the PVK (Papua Volunteer Corps) and were worth their weight in gold in the jungle. They were able (assisted by Dutch Royal Marines) to neutralize virtually all Indonesian paratroopers. They didn't stand a chance. That's why the joke is made that there are now more of these FS knives in the Netherlands than in Indonesia. But to be clear : I have seen far more first model Fairbairn Sykes knives (in the last forty five years) than this one. Second and third model FS I won’t even mention.    Beyond extremely rare and highly sought after. 

As far as I have seen far now (but I could be wrong), the bayonets done for Europe had all cross guard welded. I've had an US-M4  (A.E.P Italy 1965) which has the guard welded, but the handle parts (some sort of brown plastic ) were fit just to the guard (so no loose space or something else for quick inspection). See below picture, not mine but I had a similar one.