Thought I would share a few pictures of one of my favorite fighting knives . No , its not for sale . My father , living in Chicago Ill during WWII , comissioned Leo Baker to mfg. this knife for him prior to enlisting in the USMC in 1944 for his tour of duty in the Pacific . He gave me this and his issued Kabar as a child . Not a bad start to a knife collection .

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Not a bad start at all! Thanks for sharing.

Very nice! What is the grip material...rubber or leather? Thanks

Baker made the blades out of old files and the grip is rubber . I believe someone told me he used old tires for the grip material , but I could be wrong on that .

Never knew the handles were rubber, thought it was leather. WOW! Learned something here. THX SKIP

What a great start to your collection ! Always nice to have a few from your dad. Congratulations.

 

Tony

Very nice indeed.Great story and thanks for posting.A knife you seldom see out side of ones published in books.

I was lucky enough to handle a few of these recently. I can tell you that the fit and finish of these knives - or at least the ones I handled - made by Baker are quite rough. You know that you're not looking at a Randall or something along those lines when you study a Baker. With that said, I really like them, and I there is a certain allure to them that I just cannot put my finger on. They are just another one of the numerous examples of common, ordinary citizens wanting to do their part for the war effort.

 

Thanks for sharing.

What a wonderful heirloom!

These are really hard to find. Have never seen one at a show. I picked up the one below off the net a few years back. Quite different from the ones you see in the books and the one that is the topic of this thread. It is small w a 4" blade. May have been an early hunting knife??

 

The handle is a combination of wood and leather. I also never realized that the bigger Bakers had rubber handles.

 

I agree they have a certain allure to them.

 

 

 

Congrats on a great heirloom from your Dad!!

Forgot to mention the pommel is lead for hand to hand combat/scull crushing etc. Definatly a crude yet very effective fighting knife . Anyone else have a Baker to share ?

This is the first one I've ever seen. Thank for posting.

 

Bill

Reall cool KABAR.

I just thought I would add this one for the historical record.

Yesterday in my safe(LOL)

Mechanix Illustrated Nov1954