When I was in the Army in 1968 after basic and AIT I went to NCO school at Fort Benning and our field work training was done by Army Rangers and I noticed all of them carried Marine Ka-Bar knives. So I talked to them about it and they said before I went to Vietnam I needed to pick one up and carry it over there as I was going to be an infantry soldier and I would need one.

Long story short I got one and carried it in Vietnam in 1969 and it was the best all around knife I could have carried because you could use it for all kinds of tasks. Later in my tour my medic in the heat of a battle borrowed it and lost it. My father then sent me out a huge Bowie knife that I carried my last few months and than I gave it to one of my guys when I left.

So I just bought a used one from the same time frame as the one I had in Vietnam made at Oleans, NY . I bought it to leave with my stuff from Vietnam for my family when I pass. I smile every time I look at it because it was a real work horse and was perfect for what I needed over there.

My go to utility knives the past 10 years or so have been Ka-bar.......

but mine have been the 3/4 size; short, 5.25" Ka-bar and the 5.12 inch Navy MkI just a handier size for a utility knife.........in the Laurel Highlands of Penn's Woods........

now if I ever "needed" a full size fighting/utility knife...........

My SF buddy Don carried his KaBar upside down on his lefthand harness strap.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

My first "KA-BAR" fighting/utility knife was actually made by Camillus, I purchased it for $7 at the PX in Camp Lejeune, NC in 1971.

2005 I gifted it to a young soldier headed to Iraq; he carried it on three more deployments and still owns it today.

To replace the Camillus, I purchased the KA-BAR Extreme Fighting-Utility Knife in D2 barstock tool steel.

KA-BAR: The Next Generation of the Ultimate Fighting Knife by Greg Walker, is a interesting read about the history and redesign process of this historic military knife; I purchased it from Paladin Press years ago.

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"Life is short, hunt hard"

In our Infantry company almost everyone carried a knife and they varied from Buck and other Hunting knives to different military knives like the Marine, Navy, & Air Force utility knifes.

Because we carried heavy packs they we usually carried the knife on our web gear straps so when we made contact with the enemy and we dropped our packs we still had the knife.

The WWII examples seem to me to have thinner, better handles than recent ones. Of course, if your hand likes the thicker one, no problem.

I expected duty in Vietnam and bought a Gil Hibben Jungle Fighting Knife and a Randall Model 3, which was available at a price that I was barely able to manage. I also had a Buck Model 105 Pathfinder that'd serve well there. Bought it in a Denver dept. store when I was stationed there.

Then I got orders for Newfoundland instead of Vietnam! I took the Randall, and it was my companion on salmon rivers and in the woods there. Canadian law prohibited carrying either rifle or handgun, and there were black bears. I hoped the knife would suffice if I was attacked, but never saw a bear, wolf or big coyote. Several years ago, two coyotes killed a girl singer in a park on a nearby island.

My son had a Randall M-14 in Iraq, but some guy borrowed it and "lost" it when the convoy had to move out on an emergency basis. I bought him a Fallkniven S-1 with black blade and Kydex sheath to replace it.

He still has the knife, but thought it was too nice and too expensive for combat use and he carried a Ka-Bar like Fyimo's. Never had to use a knife in battle, but it came close a few times. He did have to rely on a 9mm pistol when his rifle ran dry and battle was close and intense.

US forces have relied on those so-called Ka-Bar knives, actually introduced by Camillus, for decades. I think they first saw combat in 1943. You can see some in the TV mini-series, The Pacific. Look on YouTube. The USN issued the same knife as the MK II, but with a fiber or plastic sheath. Marines had leather sheaths, as do the knives since carried by soldiers.

For the money, those Ka-Bar knives are pretty good value and they have a lot of history behind them. I think Ontario makes a newer version with a Kraton (?) handle that's better in humid conditions.

Thanks, Fyimo, for this interesting topic. Probably someone will add photos.

Robeson made them too. All of the variants are fine knives. for my purposes the navy deck knife is a handier size.

Here is a picture of a WWII USN MK2 made by KaBar with original MK2 sheath. The sheath is made of fiberglass. Handle is stacked leather discs.

Bought it recently at a local Coin and Militaria Auction. In the same lot was a 1976 Air Force Pilot Survival knife by Ontario, and a M4 Bayonet made by Imperial.

It was a real find in this condition. Still had traces of cosmoline on the blade and original edge from factory. (not re sharpened)

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I own 3 of the M-3 knives, 2 are more recent manufacture and one is a Korean War vet. These are used in camping and hunting camps whenever the need arises. One lives in my BOB in the truck.

While my oldest son was finishing High School in 1998 before his basic training we were at a gun show, specifically to buy him a older M-3. We found a very good specimen for $40 and by the end of the day , he had turned down several offers of up to $70. When he deployed to Iraq, He was a Blackhawk mechanic , but after 6 months was permoted crew chief and flew opps daily. He carried his vintage M-3 in a modern sheath. He never needed for a fighting weapon, but as an improvised tool, he used it constantly.

Ivan

Picture of original WW II US Navy MK2 KaBar fighting knife and a modern 3/4 size USMC KaBar that I bought for camping, hiking, etc.

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I have my step-fathers knife he had in ww2. I had to refinish it when he gave it to me and the sheath was replaced when he got back from the pacific in 45 but still it is one of my favorite knives.

always good to have around.
jim

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My sister is a huge knife fan and a gardener/forager. Several years ago I gave her the 5.25" short Ka-Bar, which struck me as a very useful and handy blade. She loved it, but it was stolen out of her car.

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Oh well, what the hell.

I have a skinning knife that I carried on my web belt while in Viet Nam. Can't remember the brand, but I've had it since the mid to late 50's.

I too have my step-father's WWII knife, it's a Ka-Bar USMC fighting knife, that he customized into a so called "theater knife" while he was ship board en-route to the pacific.

A theater knife is the term given to the knives that were customized using what ever materials that could be scrounged aboard ship, some are simple, others quite fancy. The only limitations were imagination and available materials. A common hallmark of theater knives is the stacked ring style handle using clear or colored lucite/plexi-glas (aircraft canopy/instruments), aluminum and/or brass, which were common "scroungeable" materials.

The notches on the spine... he wouldn't comment on them very much and I got the impression that it was something best left alone.

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Conrad
SWCA #1830 SWHF #222

Of anything in my kit, I wish I could've brought my KaBar back from Vietnam. I expect it was a Camillus clone, didn't know much other than they were all called KaBars. Bought a new one at a gun show some years back. I've several fixed blades these days. All good ones, no junk. That said, if I could only have one, it would be the KaBar.

Enjoyable post with nice pics. How can anyone that likes knives, not appreciate any of the US combat knives?
Years ago, someone stole my dad's WW2 Kabar and compass from his pickup. I'd like to get a MC fighting knife as I have a Navy MkII that will go to kids/g-kids.

I bought a Marine Corps issue Kabar from a grunt for 10 bucks when I first got in country at Bien Hoa. I carried every day and it was THE go to tool for nearly all my needs, along with my original issue P-38 it kept me fed from cans of Korean War vintage C-Rats. On the boat I was stationed on, every day the C-Q runner would come down to the piers and throw a fresh case of C-Rats on the deck, we would go scrambling to break it open and be the first to get the Spaghetti and Meatballs or Franks and Beans, the only two that were edible cold...well Turkey Loaf was OK but dry without Applesauce. I remember one day my good buddy and I met over the case knives drawn in a crouch, eyeball to eyeball...we both growled and then laughed ourselves near to falling down.

I had USMC KBar , came new out of our supply ( Army) Could
be because I was on M42 which was obsolete and most parts
were coming from the Navy, and 40mm ammo. My Dad was
Navy WW2, he had the deck knife, his was a Case. This knife
was the sharpest knife I have ever seen. Old man kept vasoline
on the blade, would shave with it to show off. I've had a lot of
knives, but never saw another that would take that kind of
edge and hold it.

Back in the 90s I had a Russian visa in my diplomatic passport so I did several INF support missions into Moscow bringing the inspectors in or taking them out. Getting ready to leave Moscow, I was coming forward after checking the pressure door at the rear of the plane and one of the treaty inspectors was handing out the replica USMC Kabar knives, still in the boxes, to all the other inspectors. He said he had brought them into country to use as trading material, but the KGB Border Guards had confiscated them on his arrival. They returned them to him on his way out of the country and as I passed by he handed one to me. I carried it on overseas missions frequently after that, including during the Gulf War. Even though it's not an era Kabar, it's no less stout.

EDIT to add: We had a crewrest in Saudi during the Gulf war; we were staying in those K-span shelters with the most serious air conditioning I've ever experienced. It was 110 outside and like 50 inside. So most of us were hanging out in the doorway trying to get the mix right. I saw a 4x4 post about 3' long on the ground nearby and used the Kabar to whittle it into a crude baseball bat. I then proceeded to hit rocks over the compound wall with it until it [the bat, not the wall] finally broke.

All the years on gun forums I have learned a lot. The same thread topics come up over and over again, and Ka-bar threads always bring out the best stories.

And I've been holding back.
I need to do a thread or two about Marine Raider Gordon Warner,
And how I met him in Okinawa.
He had the most unique KaBar that I ever saw or heard about.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

Well, tell the tale! Sounds good.

Can't wait to hear about him.....and the knife too of course.

While serving in Vietnam one of our missions was to haul a squad of Marines upriver, drop them off and return to pick them up in a couple days. I'll never forget one of the grunts that grabbed a plastic flyswatter that was hanging around and sitting down with his razor sharp K-Bar to cut all the fine plastic mesh away until there was just a matrix of larger plastic cross pieces. He handed it back to me as I was watching with interest at his process. He said "There ya go kid, now you got yourself an official US Marine Crops sporterized flyswatter."

Cheese and crackers, and the peanut butter too. When I was at Clark Air Base, PI, for quite some time, we would have C-Rats for lunch every Saturday. They would put large trash cans by the entrance/exit to the chow hall and they would be filled with the above items for us to take. Always had plenty on hand in my locker.

I used to collect all the cheese cans until I had about a dozen, then sit down and open each one hoping for the white cheese with caraway seeds in it, the ratio was about three or four to one. The yellow cheese wasn't that great, we could get spray cheese at the big Marble Mountain PX, that and Ritz crackers was what alot of guys got by on. If you could heat them up the taters and beef wasn't bad, same with spiced beef, turkey loaf was dry but OK, ham and eggs sucked, Limas and ham was edible, pork steak was OK, beef was usually OK. I liked the fruit cake mixed with fruit cocktail, applesauce with pound cake was good too. On the boat we could get mess hall size cans of peanut butter and just about anything else, they were big cans...we just had to fill out all the requisition forms. When your hungry just about anything edible is good, we were all ravenous teenagers, ate everything...The best part of crewing on the boats was getting to sneak downtown at night and party, thats when we got to eat real food, nobody ever got sick off the food we ate on off limits trips, might catch the clap but never get sick on the food.

I have that exact knife and sheath, as well as a WW2 era model stamped USN with a leather sheath. Both given to me by my father, and they are mint and my prized possessions. I saw a MK2 USN in a gun store a couple years ago, and it was beat up bad aand they wanted 250.00 for it

I posted very early in this thread that I've been using the "Short" 5" Ka-bar and more recently the Mk1 as my utility knives for at least 10 years.

Well this thread got me to order my first full size Ka-bar..... just cus..... no real need......what the heck; a good knife for only $70 .... what's the down side!!!!!!!

I'm cursed with the personal issue of not using knifes or guns that I deem too nice to or too expensive to actually use and maybe........ mess up.....................ka-bar meets my needs.... good knife at a nice price point

Growing up in Tulsa I remember my dad's USN Kabar in the fiberglass sheath and he bought it from an Army Surplus store for one dollar when he got out of the Navy in WWII. He had just married my mom and that was his personal defense weapon he kept under the car seat, it stayed under the front seat of every car we ever owned. I remember growing up he used it for so many tasks and I was amazed at how he could chop a big limb off a tree with it. When he passed away that was the only thing I wanted out of all his possessions, but a family members kid took it and I was supposed to get it back and never did.