Fake WWII John EK

[rcmodel]

I put this one together for a guy who found the old 6" sticker blade with no handle at a flea market.

The sheath it was in was WWII vintage or older, but badly dry-rotted.
I salvaged the oval head rivets out of the old sheath and re-used them to make the new sheath.

Just so it won’t ever be mistaken for a real WWII John Ek in years to come?

1. I marked the blade plainly & deeply with my initials & the date I made it.

2. The scales were made from a hickory hammer handle, scorched with a torch, instead of the rock maple John Ek always used.

3. I attached them with poured Babbitt metal “rivets” instead of the poured aluminum rivets John Ek used.

4. The handle and skull cracker projection is shorter then a real John Ek would ever have been.

Anyway, he was real happy with the knife, and I was pretty happy with the $50 bucks he paid me for doing it.








rc

 

[hso]

Cool

If you'd never seen one and you weren't a student of them you'd never know.

BTW, John Ek used lead instead of aluminum for the rivets.

 

[rcmodel]

I've seen pretty reliable references to both.

I really don't know which is right.

Or maybe both are?

At any rate, my fake ones were neither one, exactly!

rc

 

[hso]

The Ek company website only refers to the lead ones, but if you were a troop with the ability to melt aluminum I don't doubt that you'd melt John Ek's lead ones out and try to improve on things with aluminum.

Since Gary Ek is still alive it might be easy to find out. I'll send an email to him and share the results (assuming he bothers to respond).

 

[rcmodel]

Thanks!

I'd be interested to know what you find out.

All I know for sure is:
M. H. Coles Book III "U. S. Military Knives" says Poured Aluminum rivets.

Michael W. Silvey in "Military Knives, a Reference" says Poured Lead rivets.

I've never seen or handled enough real ones to form a semi-educated opinion.

rc

 

[hso]

BTW, gunbarrel on USA Militaria Forum has a brilliant thread on them. http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=150554&st=0

 

[rcmodel]

Thanks again.

I'll check it out.

rc

 

[Deltaboy1984]

Cool Knife work.

 

[hso]

I finally heard back from Gary Ek about the rivets -

Gary Ek [email protected]

NOPE - LEAD/ Tin Mixture-

 

[rcmodel]

Well o.k. then.
Thanks!

I guess my using 80% lead, 15% antimony, 5% tin Babbitt metal was a pretty good choice then!

rc