Don Gwinn
Moderator Emeritus
Dad was at a yard sale the other day in sleepy little Virden, IL and ran across some interesting items. He gave me perhaps the most interesting of the bunch. One of the things he kept was an old kukri that appears, to my non-expert eye, to be genuine and not one of the cheap knock-offs. I have an Indian cheapie, and it's a real clunker compared to this thing, with a blade profile more like a thick chisel than anything else. This sucker has a very thick spine, but the blade profile is almost like a mild hollow grind. It's a hell of a cutter. It also has a fairly unique notched mark--I forget what they're called, forgive me.
There was also a Japanese bayonet obviously made crudely and in great haste. The guard was clearly rough-cut with shears, and the grips were not fitted to the tang, just pinned on and squared off. The locking mechanism worked smoothly, but the pommel was just roughly squared off and not shaped beyond that at all. The blade wasn't sharpened; it was perhaps 1/32 of an inch thick at the cutting edge. Only the first 3 inches or so, measured from the point, were sharpened at all. The entire blade is still covered in the machining marks and there are no fullers or other details added.
But the most interesting piece, to me anyway, is the one I'm posting pictures of in this thread. Dad says the man sold all these knives (and some others ) as the contents of an old footlocker. He told dad he served in the Pacific in--I think--1943-on. He told dad this piece was a trench knife and that he had served in Burma for awhile, where he got it. Dad didn't ask, but I assume if he was telling the truth that a local smith made it from an American's bayonet.
I'd wondered about the man's story, but now I'm not so sure. For one thing, the knife has horn scales. Those surely weren't the original issue grips. The only other knife I own with horn like this is from the Phillippines. The workmanship is not pretty, but very strong and utilitarian (and the sort of thing a low-tech smith might use.) As you can see from the photos, brass was used to braze the rough, spiked D-guard to the original steel hilt and pommel, filling in the bayonet mount in the process. It's very solid. The blade was also cut down to a bowie style from the long bayonet. It's stamped "U.S." and "RIA"--Rock Island Armory? I dunno.
Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone can tell me more about this kind of thing. Was it common in places like Burma? I would think so, with the number of smiths there and the difference in prices even back then. Don't really know.
Honestly, it probably doesn't matter. . . . but the story is perhaps the coolest thing about this knife. Maybe he used it to kill a Nazzy and 50 Toe Joes before a Japan-Man shot off his shins. . . .
(Photo removed to cure the Scrolling Screen of Death. You'll just have to click the link, lazybones.)
There was also a Japanese bayonet obviously made crudely and in great haste. The guard was clearly rough-cut with shears, and the grips were not fitted to the tang, just pinned on and squared off. The locking mechanism worked smoothly, but the pommel was just roughly squared off and not shaped beyond that at all. The blade wasn't sharpened; it was perhaps 1/32 of an inch thick at the cutting edge. Only the first 3 inches or so, measured from the point, were sharpened at all. The entire blade is still covered in the machining marks and there are no fullers or other details added.
But the most interesting piece, to me anyway, is the one I'm posting pictures of in this thread. Dad says the man sold all these knives (and some others ) as the contents of an old footlocker. He told dad he served in the Pacific in--I think--1943-on. He told dad this piece was a trench knife and that he had served in Burma for awhile, where he got it. Dad didn't ask, but I assume if he was telling the truth that a local smith made it from an American's bayonet.
I'd wondered about the man's story, but now I'm not so sure. For one thing, the knife has horn scales. Those surely weren't the original issue grips. The only other knife I own with horn like this is from the Phillippines. The workmanship is not pretty, but very strong and utilitarian (and the sort of thing a low-tech smith might use.) As you can see from the photos, brass was used to braze the rough, spiked D-guard to the original steel hilt and pommel, filling in the bayonet mount in the process. It's very solid. The blade was also cut down to a bowie style from the long bayonet. It's stamped "U.S." and "RIA"--Rock Island Armory? I dunno.
Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone can tell me more about this kind of thing. Was it common in places like Burma? I would think so, with the number of smiths there and the difference in prices even back then. Don't really know.
Honestly, it probably doesn't matter. . . . but the story is perhaps the coolest thing about this knife. Maybe he used it to kill a Nazzy and 50 Toe Joes before a Japan-Man shot off his shins. . . .
(Photo removed to cure the Scrolling Screen of Death. You'll just have to click the link, lazybones.)
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My guess is that he held it in reverse grip with the edge inward.
