I've had this knife over 50 years. it belonged to an uncle who used it for a long time before he gave it to me in the mid 60s. it sat neglected(by me) for too many years. I have cleaned it the best I could without putting it on a wire brush. it is very, very sharp. just thought I would share. lee

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Looks like a Marbles.

Oldie and a goody!
Just a reminder to all blade boys within earshot-
Don’t long term store your knife in that leather sheath!

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

THANKS FOR SHOWING YOU.

That was my first thought, too. I can’t make out the stamp on the ricasso, though.

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Not in jail.

Yeah sure has some character. Like those old look hunting knives from way back. Sounds like carbon steel blade on it and a leather wrapped handle.

Try coating the blade in naval jelly.

Or Kabar???

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Super Snooper

They were quite popular back in the day. Many of my friends had them. I had a couple hunting knives that said Solingen West Germany on them with stag handles. # 2 son has them now

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Pete
I ain't no fortunate son

I got one of those.......... was old when Dad gave it to me 55 years ago.

it is marked Kinfolks. very hard to read and doesn't show up well in a picture. I tried. lee

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It looks like a very practical design, with about a five-inch blade, excellent for general outdoors use.

The handle seems longer than some, a feature I prefer.

Can you measure the blade and handle lengths?

I like the wider guard than some similar knives have. It looks more substantial and prettier.

The blade shape is much like the Fallkniven S-1 and Randall Model 5, among my favorite knives.

A shoe repair shop may be able to re-stitch that sheath. Shoe polish should keep the leather handle from separating and it'd look much better. Same for the sheath.

I like the suggestion above about Naval jelly to restore the blade finish.

Kinfolks Knife CO was one of the numerous Case Family founded firms.
It’s called Kinfolks because it was started by a Case and two Case cousins.
It turns out that not only were the Case men heavily involved with knife industry, so were several Case Ladies.
Several Case Ladies married knife-makers, and produced more knife-makers!

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Cool knife. That was a popular style knife in the day. Marbles called theirs the "Ideal" and was made in various lengths.

the blade is 5" and the handle is 4 1/2". lee

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Well I learn something everyday....I had not heard of "Kinfolks" knives before.

Lee, I just assumed from the title of this thread and your reference to the knife once belonging to your uncle that was what you were speaking of.

Don

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Laus Deo! <><

Looks a lot like my old Boy Scout knife.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

Yeah, that's what I thought, too. Had to look it up. I had a similar Marbles knife that I lost in SE Asia...Marbles now have some collector value. Probably so do Kinfolks.

Reminds me of my Sears Roebuck knife that I have had since I was 12:

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Only a cold warrior

In recent decades Case has stamped knives with the Kinfolks brand. On their website Case College lists Kinfolks with other "family brands" and gives years when variations of the tang stamp were used.

Marbles is better known for using a wide deep depression down the center of the blade but Case also made blades with that feature. I forget the correct name for it so I'll call it a Marbles groove. I own a Case that has a 6" chrome plated blade with a Marbles groove. It has a stacked leather washer handle. I like to think previous owners field dressed and skinned lots of deer with it but all I actually know is that its price was right in a pawn shop.

“Fuller” is the term you are looking for. They have been called “blood grooves”, but their real purpose is to lighten the blade.

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Not in jail.

Once a guy named Champlin opened a knife manufacturing plant in
Little Valley, NY.
He needed a new name for his new company.
It’s located in Cattaraugus County.
We’ll think of something!
Case connected? Well. Yes.
His wife was a Case and at one point several of his Case Brother in Laws worked for him.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

what that knife looks like to me is one of the knives produced for WWII. Number of different manufactures produced them. common ingredient was the shape of the blade, leather washer handle and so on. I have a number of them from the different companies making them. They were the model for after war commercial production of the same style knife. Other manufacturers were among others PAL/remington, colonial, and so on. I haven't used shoe polish on the leather, but i have used picards, which is a leather treatment which a lot of museums use, it tightens up the leather. i have used naval jelly among other things to get the rust out. known for high carbon content, east to sharpen. one of the ones i have from memory is a cutlinger, not govt issue, sold in px stores, has a bottle opener on the blade. scabbard has what looks like leopard skin on the scabbard, probably a project for some bored g.i. in africa. they are rather cool knives to collect. i am just going from memory, which is probably wrong, but i want to say mark I fighting knife. the wwII produced had the metal butt on the handle. i had a client give me one who was in the navy in WWII. I told him it was prewar which surprised him that i knew that. How? it had a wooden butt. he was issued one of the new ones, told to throw the old one in the ocean at pearl, didn't do it because he liked the old one better. He was wearing it why working on a subtender at pearl harbor when the japanese came visiting. I always kind of keep an eye out for them at yard sales, pawn shops. sometimes you can buy them for ten bucks or so and refinish them.
if this is acceptable to post, if one was to go to a certain online sight where a lot of stuff is sold, type in search phrase WWII mark I fighting knife and you can see a bunch for sale.

there is another version of a kinfolks listed on there right now for 575dollars.
the colonial version has always been of interest to me, in that they didn't use the leather washer handle, it was moulded kind of like a much later polymer style plastic. pretty high tech at the time.

I have a cattaraugus too, produced for WWII. didn't know the connection to case.

The standardized WW II knife that Lee's Kinfolks is most similar to is the 5" bladed navy deck knife. While a few might have been used in a pinch they were not fighting knives. The navy knife did not have a fuller but the fleet expanded so fast that the navy bought most any reasonable substitute. I do not know if Lee's kinfolks is that old.

The army, marine and navy issued fighting knives with 7" blades. As a group they are often called the name of one of their makers, Ka-Bar.

I'll leave it to a member familiar with military knives to give us the proper MK numbers.

the uncle that gave it to me was Navy in WWII but never mentioned if he got it then or carried it then. I do have a Case very similar in size that another WWII Navy cook uncle carried with him to the Navy. he said all he ever killed with it was about 6,000 sacks of potatoes. lee

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Ka-Bar makes a nice 'reproduction" of the 5" MkI Navy Deck knife..... It's become my go to utility/general purpose fixed blade carry knife in Penn's Woods....... about $60-80 depending on blade (plain/serrated) and handle material (leather or synthetic ).

Not to big...not to small..... not to tacticooool

Had a couple of those wander through my life.

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James L. "Jim" Rhiner

Do you know the maker of that "coffin" Bowie?

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Only a cold warrior

None of those are really "coffin" Bowies. Which one are you referring to?

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James L. "Jim" Rhiner

Top left.

That is what I have always heard that handle type called.

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Only a cold warrior

Nope. The coffin handle is shaped at the butt like an upper view of a coffin

I picked up one of the pilot survival knives during my Westpac cruise '66-'67 for $5. You would think that as part of my job repacking steam valves on my ship we would see more knives especially in the engineering spaces. When valve packing time came around the knife most used was the standard electricians knife with a blade and screwdriver. My pilot's survival knife went home long before I did. And I still have it 50 some odd years later. Frank

Sorry for the confusion. That little guy is unmarked. I picked him up at a yard sale for a dime.

The other knife in the below pic is a "coffin" Bowie. (Cold Steel Laredo Bowie) Different regions, different names.

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James L. "Jim" Rhiner