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Schrade Walden MIL-K-10043

Spent most of today cleaning up a very special gift from the brother of a friend of mine. I tend to give away just about as many knives as I buy. When he and his wife were visiting my friend, I gave him and his wife a custom knife from my collection. They were both blown away (was the first time I had met them). Anyway, when the got back to Florida, he packaged up and sent me a very special gift. It was the Schrade Walden Parachutist's Snap Blade Knife (MIL-K-10043) he was issued in the 1950s. While he told me that it was issued to him in 1955, that date may be a tad off, as I believe they didn't start producing this particular model until a year or two later. Regardless, I was touched by gift. Needless to say, he used the knife quite a bit during his military service and the knife show it! Handle had quite a few burn marks, nicks and other unidentifiable marks on it. The pins and blade were quite discolored. the main blade did, however spring open nicely (though there is a bit of up and down blade wobble in the locked position). What is really amazing is that, while the knife looked like it received "A LOT" of use, the blade did not appear to have ever been sharpened. Anyway, put a lot of work into cleaning it up today. Handle looks almost new now and the blade is clean, shiny and sports a hair whittling, mirror polished edge. Hopefully, this weekend, I will have some time to take some pictures. Just wish my excitement would have let my brain kick in sooner ... as I didn't take any before pics!!! But trust me, it was pretty rough! Thank goodness for a Dremel, various polishing and cleaning compounds, and lots of elbow grease! In the meantime, was hoping that someone might know the type of stainless steel Schrade was using on these knives. Based on the date, this would have been the first MIL-K-10043 model produced after the M2. Would love to have that info for my collection data base. My searching online has turned up nothing.

Thanks,

Dennis in PA

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on July 1, 2016 at 19:44

Dennis, do you have a picture of it?

Permalink Reply by Dennis Hibar on July 2, 2016 at 11:08

I got around to taking some pictures this morning Jan. As I said, this is the first Schrade Walden MIL-K-10043 made post WWII. While my friend's brother said it was issued to him in '55, my research indicates that it was not produced as a Schrade Walden until '57 (his memory might be a tad off, who knows).

Anyway, clean up of the knife went well, but still have a little to do. The blade, however, now sports a nice mirrored edge (23°/side) and is very, very sharp.

Here are a few more pics:

So .... hopefully, someone might know exactly what type of stainless was used on these knives.

Permalink Reply by Bill DeShivs on July 5, 2016 at 12:04

The blades are carbon steel-not stainless.

You seem to be confused on some things. The model you mention was produced from after WW2 until 1957 (approximate dates.) This model was a single blade with black plastic handles.

In 1957 the MC-1 was introduced. It had orange plastic handles and 2 blades. The MC-1 had a stainless main blade.

You did a great job cleaning it up.

Permalink Reply by Dennis Hibar on July 5, 2016 at 13:18

Thanks Bill .... yes, I guess the model name for this one is the MC-1 (perhaps MIL-K-10043 is the official military spec nomenclature .... I remember I had a MIL-K-818 issued to me early in my military career, but it was normally referred to only as a demo knife). It appears there were two versions of this model produced by Schrade Walden ... this one has 4 lines stamped on the blade tang on the presentation side Schrade/Walden/NY USA/Stainless. The other has three lines on the presentation side: Schrade/Walden/NY USA stamped on the presentation side and and one line: Stainless stamped on the reverse side. My friend's brother still insists it was issued to him in 1955 ... but as you said (and everything I can find indicates that) it was not produced by Schrade Walden until 57. Still unsure as to what type of stainless steel was used.

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