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Ka Bar knived

Hi guys. Am an avid knife collector, but new to the forum.

Does anyone know any resources where I can track down discontinued Ka Bar knives?

I really want a straight edge, full-sized Next Generation stainless Ka bar.

I already have the combo-edge version, and the tanto version.

Thank you in advance.

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Permalink Reply by Gus Marsh on March 2, 2022 at 11:21

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Permalink Reply by Kevin D on March 3, 2022 at 5:31

Good Morning Kevin,

My little upfront disclaimer : I am not a Ka-Bar connoisseur, nor do I claim to be any sort of expert on them. :)

I am curious if you are strictly looking for true Ka-Bars, or any of the other companies that produced Ka-Bars under the military contract during WWII?

To my knowledge, Union Cutlery, Camillus, PAL, and Shuredge all made Ka-bars as well. I have seen a MK I with 'colonial' under it, but I do not know anything about that company.

How old of a knife are you looking for? The earliest Ka-Bar design that I am aware of is the MK I, This was not completely adopted as a couple of the Marine battalions opted for a raider stilleto design instead. The MK 2 was introduced part way through the war to address some of the shortcomings that our servicemen had found with the MK I. All in all, the Ka-Bar was widely used as a fighter/utility knife and was issued to a huge number of servicemen. I would imagine that there is a pretty large supply pool to draw from, although the salt water did tend to rot out the leather disc handles...

After the war, a few other companies joined in the production... I would have to look them up, but I am pretty certain that Utica was one of them.

Per my understanding, the tanto style version was a fairly recent offering. But as I said, I am not a Ka-Bar expert.

Anyway, just wondering if you can provide a little more guidance on your collecting target(s).

Thanks

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FeaturedPermalink Reply by dead_left_knife_guy on March 7, 2022 at 23:05

Kevin,this is the knife that came to mind when reading your question: the 1292. Of course, it's a semi-stainless tool steel (D2) -- or 1095, I'm not entirely sure, the BladeHQ page says it's both (confusing page-editing issue on their end)...