Photos of Henry Calvin(Sgt. Garcia) with his " Texas Black Knife" - Also photo of  the Crozier Technical High School mini tank- BTW, they made this, too !!…

How these knives came to be dubbed " Texas Black knives"-  The first was found in an estate sale belonging to General  Graber Kidwell of Dallas, Tx.- Not much thought about it until another was found in the estate sale of Henry Calvin, better known as Sgt. Garcia of the old " Zorro" tv show- Got the finder interested in old newspaper articles etc. and he dubbed the knives " Texas Black knives-- What follows are old Dallas newspaper articles, and Henry Calvin (Sgt.  Garcia)  with his own "…

 Now  is the saga of the Crozier Tech knives-

Upon America’s entry into World War Two, our troops were painfully short of many items of equipment. Many were not even known at the time, as a new type of war was being fought. Large-scale troop movements in diverse weather conditions made supply a real problem. Clothing and weapons were the first big step, without which our troops could not enter any battle. Knives were on the agenda, but pretty far down on the list. The need was there,…

Here is an old letter requesting a knife--

"In Jun. 1943, my dad (only 20 years old) had just finished Navy boot camp, and commando training.  He was in an ARGUS unit, assigned to act as an infantry soldier, and to set up radar stations with the Marines when they invaded Tarawa (although he didn't know then that Tarawa was his

destination).  He felt his issued knife was insufficient as a combat knife. And he wrote home to my Granddad, in Dallas, with one request.  As I read…

The real hero of this saga is the Crozier Technical High School of Dallas, Texas- They are credited with making over a 1000 knives, some claiming over 2000 for the men overseas, but an authenticated example of such a knife is a mystery - The school  started making knives due to the pleas of servicemen begging for durable knives- These knives were crude by any stretch of the imagination, but serviceably tough- Most were made from old files and old commercial saw blades and were handled in…

Okay, how do I begin ?? Long before a nail file got a student expelled from school, there was a period of sanity when some schools actually sponsored the making of knives to support the WW2 war effort- I, as many of you know, do a lot of research on vintage knives as  a hobby for other members, and I was unaware of this until a few days ago- I find this story fascinating, and a story with a real lack of hard information- I thought the story worth sharing~~~ This story will be picture and…