Show Your Vintage Knife

[gpw_42]

Lugz, that machete is "da bomb!" Looks great, and just makes me wonder what the backstory is, because that's a lot of etching. Will you pound out the ding with a hammer? I'd have a hard time using it, given it's great condition.

For the last couple years, I have typically carried either a wartime TL-29 (which somebody butchered into a clip point) or a post-war Camillus scout-style 4 blade knife. Prior to that, I typically had a Benchmade with a pocket clip in my pocket...think I made the shift to TL-29 when the Benchmade CEO stuck his foot in his mouth in 2019, or when I discovered that the screwdriver blade made the little wartime knife a lot more useful (though not handier) than the Benchmade options. The Camillus had disintegrating plastic/celluloid scales on it, which I replaced with dyed jigged bone. Growing up, knives were only for Scouts and other camping trips - in the 70s and 80s, a knife at school was major trouble, and not worth the risk.

 

[Levaughn]

I picked up this Pal Cutlery Co knife at an Estate Sale this week.

 

[bbbarracuda]

So I've got this side yard with a patch of English ivy surrounding a small sitting area made of old slate with an old iron pergola on it. The ivy has always been a pain, growing fast and aggressively, trailers diving under the soil, spreading to fences, that needs constant trimming. Or what I do which is let it go too long. Then the job becomes immeasurably more unbearable with hedge trimmers. I've been casually looking for a good cheap bush axe, and I almost bought a cheap kitchen cleaver last week.

Today I bought a machete at the flea market with that danged ivy patch in mind. I noticed that it might have some interesting etching on it, but my intention was still purely utilitarian. It is well made, not loose, and quite hefty, with a stacked leather washer handle and a serious Fierce Eagle head pommel. Best of all, it was $10.

I tucked it under my arm and proceeded to continue making my rounds. I didn't get 30 feet before someone asked me where I got it. Twenty minutes later, the seller at another table asked if he could look at it. On my way out a guy said, "Nice machete."

Why yes, yes it is.

It was too long for my Evaporust bin, so I wrapped it tightly and carefully in rags sopping wet with Evaporust and left it outside for a few hours.

It's marked "HECHO EN MEXICO." That side of the blade also depicts four lions with mountains behind them.

On the flip side, an inscription surrounded by fancy filigree reads: "CUANDO ME VEAS RELUIR PREPATE A BUEN MORIR," which means more or less, "WHEN YOU SEE ME SHINE, PREPARE TO DIE WELL."

Now I'm having second thoughts about whacking the ivy with it.

Absolutely use it!
Tools are made to be used first, then you will have one more story for the Lugzonian.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Lugz, that machete is "da bomb!" Looks great, and just makes me wonder what the backstory is, because that's a lot of etching...[ ]... I'd have a hard time using it, given it's great condition.

Thanks! It's so ironic, because I already have one vintage machete I refuse to use. (More on that in an ensuing post.) I saw another decent bush axe yesterday, guy wanted $50 for it and refused $35. I'm thinking, Dude, it's a flea market, it's forty years old, it's not a collectible, and you pulled that and the big wooden mallets out of a barn somewhere in a cleanout, give me a break. I just want to find one or a cleaver or a good user machete for cheap.

Will you pound out the ding with a hammer?

I'm going to try that and a little honing to reduce it. Normally I wouldn't care, but it's a shame there's only one that mars its appearance.

Tools are made to be used first,

Originally, true, but they do have a value that transcends the utilitarian as collectibles. There are antique and vintage tools that I would not dream of mustering out of their high and dry place of retirement on my Walls of Fame to be put back into service on a nut or bolt when any other young whippersnapper would do. An analogy I often use is the feeling like I was making my 94-year-old mother scrub the kitchen floor at my house.

Granted, the machete is a little different. I'm not sure of it significance, first of all. And, I think it might could not only stand a little whacking, but maybe like it. But I will probably try to find one that won't seem so undignified. I don't think the man who made it had the life of my English ivy in mind when he etched that slogan on the blade!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

So here's the other machete I won't use, even though my dad used the heck out of it and let me and my brothers swing it at brush and such when we were kids.



It's funny how these things go, though, and really sets the early years context for collecting and wartime collecting.

As you know, he was a quartermaster in the Navy on a Destroyer ****** in the Pacific during WWII. Like most guys, he never said boo about it, but he had his fair share of souvenirs, including, we always thought, this machete and scabbard.

It's a genuine Sheffield in a canvas duck scabbard with an M-1910 hook, "DOVER '45" marking, and an 'ENGLAND' overmark. There is no U.S. proprietary marking anywhere on the machete or scabbard. Not that unusual. If you know the history, England (which still had a considerable presence throughout the Pacific at that time) and Australia supplied a lot of M-1942 pattern 18" machetes to US forces, augmenting those supplied in short and delayed numbers by Collins (the M-1942 was a chopped **** mod of their popular commercial model) and others. The number of British machetes found in WW II U.S. military scabbards is astounding.





But it wasn't until many years later, when my thoughts were more cultured and refined than "playing war" with his stuff, that I noticed the handle was...



I suspect this probably came home with one of my uncles or his brother-in-law, also WWII veterans, or even my Great Aunt (WAAC 1943-1973), who was stationed in Okinawa twice, shortly after the war, not dear old dad.

It's a microcosm of the surplus era, really, when anything and everything that had anything to do with the war was aggrandized into wartime. Even my brothers and I were guilty of it in our fertile imaginations.

 

[Mintgrun]

Collins

I've got one to share, while we're on the topic of machetes. This one is 27" overall, with a blade that is 21 - 1/2". It looks like it's dated 1943.






The handle is some sort of composite, as opposed to plastic. I'm not the one that cut it up to make it grippy, but I did add the friction tape. The blade is nicely tapered, from a fat eighth, to about a thirty-second at the tip. They tapered the tang as well. This seems like a well-built tool.



Blackberries are a force to contend with around here, but I prefer using a scythe. I've got an old brush axe that also has the hammer/hand/crown logo, but it doesn't fit in this thread.

Tom

 

[Private Lugnutz]

This one is 27" overall, with a blade that is 21 - 1/2". It looks like it's dated 1943.

That is the M-1918 pattern used through the interwar years and into WWII. Very nice. They went shorter in the M-1942, thinking it more suitable for dense tropics.

The handle is some sort of composite, as opposed to plastic

Yeah, they all are. Bakelite or something.

 

[bbbarracuda]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/578287093656367104

Found this thread on Twitter from a few years back, with the same quote. I don’t know how similar the machete is to yours but might point you a direction to search.

 

[555]

Nice find and very interesting!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Found this thread on Twitter from a few years back, with the same quote. I don’t know how similar the machete is to yours but might point you a direction to search.

Thanks for the tip, 'Cuda.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I found two items yesterday at the flea. A fish knife with a handle and sheath made of balsa or some other extremely lightweight wood, for buoyancy, which you can see and read more about it in a Lugzsonian Tour post here, and finally, after long last, a sturdy but cheap ($2) machete to whack my English Ivy back with!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

If you're confused, it's a fake, made by the Ontario Knife Company for Schreck Wholesale Industries (S.W.I.) in the early 1970's, when postwar boomer babies were reaching young manhood, Army/Navy stores were as prevalent as Sears, and the surplus (and repro) markets were in their heyday. The thing is, they're really, really high-quality fakes. Well-made and spec correct. So good, that the Coles knife book listed them for years as genuine. So, I will be whacking with some style.

 

[gpw_42]

Nice pick up on the user machete, especially for the price.

I'm still cogitating on that Mexican machete; the tweet about the one in the Mexican museum has something [stating(?), opining(?) or speculating(?)...my Spanish isn't all that....] that it was used by one of Pancho Villa's warlords. Not sure if that's a statement about that particular blade, or a comment about the type. My suspicion is the former; if true, that's a LOT older than I was guessing. Which makes me wonder if yours was a "bring back" from the Punitive Expedition.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Which makes me wonder if yours was a "bring back" from the Punitive Expedition.

Possible, I suppose, although I am inclined to think it's just as possible these were made later in tribute or celebration of the revolution. I have contacted the museum. I am awaiting a reply.

EDIT: I will let on that one thing that has me just a little cautiously excited is the handle. The guard and the pommel are not steel. Or, not magnetic, anyway. They could be silver. There is a tang that goes through the guard and the grip and terminates at the end of the pommel. I can see it where there is some wear and that spot and only that spot is magnetic.

 

[Motochick]

I found this meat clever covered in dirt and red overspray in a tool box I got. The handle was split so I am making a new one from black walnut. This knife was imported by ROMO of New York City around 1917-1920. I am ordering new loveless bolts today and will post the finished knife when I'm done.

 

[Mintgrun]

The guard and the pommel are not steel. Or, not magnetic, anyway. They could be silver.

Or aluminum? Silver has a tendency to tarnish and turn black. I'd think the recessed areas would be black if it was silver. Aluminum tends to stay shiny. I know you did not polish it!

Tom

 

[Private Lugnutz]

True, although it doesn't seem like aluminum to me. But I'm no metallurgist. I did do a ring or ping test. But I don't know.

See why I am only cautiously excited?

 

[RTM]

Pewter perchance? Easy to pour when melted. And I have no idea how to tell, except its generally soft.

 

[steaks&anvils]

Possible, I suppose, although I am inclined to think it's just as possible these were made later in tribute or celebration of the revolution. I have contacted the museum. I am awaiting a reply.

EDIT: I will let on that one thing that has me just a little cautiously excited is the handle. The guard and the pommel are not steel. Or, not magnetic, anyway. They could be silver. There is a tang that goes through the guard and the grip and terminates at the end of the pommel. I can see it where there is some wear and that spot and only that spot is magnetic.

Turn on the google view. If you google "Cuando me veas relucir, preparate para bien morir" you get a few more hits of similar items. And a tattoo...

Similarities are: sword/long knife/machete, silver/aluminium guards/pommels (eagle is popular), etched scenes/phrases, stacked leather hand grips, made in mexico and "older".

Also try the phrase: "Mexican machete sword" lots of the same "type" sword/machetes.

One of the links says aluminium guards/pommels and that these are 1950-60s tourist type souvenirs. But you know the internet information quality...

 

[555]

A KABAR MK2 USN knife. Both it and the scabbard are marked MK2. It was given to me by a fellow military collector at one of the American Society of Military Insignia Collectors (ASMIC) shows in Louisville, KY. I think 1984. it is rough but one of my favorite knives.

The other is a bayonet purchased at a junk store around 1981. I didn't do any research on it and still haven't. I just liked the way it looked. Pretty sure it is Swedish.

 

[Dave455]

The other is a bayonet purchased at a junk store around 1981. I didn't do any research on it and still haven't. I just liked the way it looked. Pretty sure it is Swedish.

Yes, it’s Swedish.

It’s a bayonet from a Swedish M/96 (1896) Mauser.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Nice Kabar, @555. Clean!

 

[555]

Nice Kabar, @555. Clean!

Thanks it shows use which is what I like.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

For sure. Just the right amount, though.

 

[Bobber828]

Picked up a PAL RH 50 Boy Scout knife at an estate sale last week. Light rust on the blade and the sheath was so dirty that I did not notice the scout emblem. The handle looked odd and after some research I found it was a Remington handle with the REMINGTON, UMC trade mark removed. The trade mark designation is still visible at the bottom of the circle. My guess is that PAL was frugal enough that they used left over Remington parts but did not want the Remington trade mark on their PAL knife. This would suggest that this is an early knife in PAL production.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

My guess is that PAL was frugal enough that they used left over Remington parts but did not want the Remington trade mark on their PAL knife.

Maybe. But it's not like PAL was ashamed or trying to hide the fact that they bought Remington Cutlery. In case you don't know, the "RH" in the PAL RH- series model numbers is a carryover from Remington that stands for Remington Hunter.

And that is a very nice envy-inducing knife!

Is there a Boy Scout marking on the knife itself, though? It looks like it fits nicely in that sheath, and I am not questioning its originality. I have just never seen one like that before.

 

[Bobber828]

Only markings on the knife are oval with PAL, made in USA under the oval, and RH and 50 on either side of the oval, which you can see in the picture I included. The other side of the blade is much cleaner than the one I pictured, again no markings. I spent a lot of time looking at images of PAL RH 50's with that handle with no luck.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

B.S.A. or not that is a keeper of a knife. Probably a Bakelite handle. I have an RH-4 with a smooth Bakelite handle posted somewhere on this thread, but that ornate one is just the ****.

 

[four.cycle]

I thought I'd already posted this image here somewhere, but the site is telling me otherwise. There's nothing really special or unusual or rare (or even very old, for that matter) in this assortment - unless you consider my father's old "Western" - the one with the chip out of the handle at upper right. Most of these were my personal "carry" knives at some point.

 

[gpw_42]

Four.cycle, your dad's knife looks great! The older I get, the more I like those jigged bone scales. What year is your MIL-K-818 (all stainless, US marked)?

 

[four.cycle]

Imperial Stainless 1976 knife

 

[Old Radar]

^^^ Gov't issue that we called the "us" knife for obvious reason. ^^^

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I always called those "G.P.'s", but our thread host has me calling them MIL-K's lately and it's growing fonder on me. I have quite a few, the oldest being a 1963 that my Great Aunt a retired lifer (1943-1973) W.A.C. gave me. I have posted it before. I have had the pleasure of reading a draft deep dive study that our host has done on the subject. He was refining it last we talked and I don't remember if he ever posted it yet or not, but I was amazed to learn from it that some of these actually date back to 1945! I desperately want and ever since I learned that I have been picking them up at the flea and looking at the date, wondering how many I missed before I knew that.

 

[gpw_42]

Four.cycle, thanks for posting that clear, close-up pic!

OR and Lugz, those MIL-Ks were not very common when I went in; I assume Leatherman tools had effectively replaced them. MIL-K-818 is the specification series which applied to these knives, which gets shortened to MIL-K. I picked up the MIL-K term from other internet forums, where it's used to distinguish from the ubiquitous TL-29s and some of the other knives more akin to the MIL-K (I'm intentionally being vague, b/c I don't have time to look up the precise knives right now).

I picked up an 80s (?) dated MIL-K to go with my reenacting gear since there'd been so little change in all those years, but carried a Leatherman the whole time I was in the Army, except a 3-week window where I was in Class Bs (business casual uniform equivalent). Thanks to our ROTC Sergeant Major who taught me about Leathermans! Wish I knew how to look him up.

Lugz, the MIL-K deep dive is basically unchanged since you last saw it...several years ago. I need to finish up the QM/ORD research I was looking into a month or so ago, and then get back into the MIL-K. Hope the links to my references are still valid, lol! This thread would probably be a good place to post it, when it's ready for "prime time."

 

[4lug39]

I've had this for 35+ years. I just recentely found a matching revolver that they were sold with originaly.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

That is shhhhweeet.

 

[gpw_42]

4lug39 that knife is cool! Did you get it new, or ??? I don't remember ever seeing a knife marked on the spine like that, which is an interesting detail. The knife looks like it's been useful during many a Texas deer season...

 

[4lug39]

4lug39 that knife is cool! Did you get it new, or ??? I don't remember ever seeing a knife marked on the spine like that, which is an interesting detail. The knife looks like it's been useful during many a Texas deer season...

gpw_42 No I traded a offshore Rambo style knife way back it the 80's when I was in High School. It was in pretty bad shape when I got it. Someone used it for a hammer. The reason the stamped S&W on the spine is thin and the handle was split then wrapped in tape, but I thought it was cool. My Dad and uncle knew a knife marker that fixed and polished it. I just oiled the sheath and let it go. Every year 3-4 times a year for whatever season it was. Life and distance has been keeping me from the ranch. The last time I spent any real time there was at least 6 years ago, but I have a few High School friends close that take advantage of it. One still plants the two 20 acres section with sunflowers for Dove season, another that is still throwing some of his catches in the 3 ponds and one-two that bow hunt there. Like I said in the OP I just picked up the revolver that was suppossed to be part of the set that they offered in the 70's and will post some pics when the gunsmith is finished with it.

 

[4lug39]

This a knife made by the gentlemen that restored my knife. I have no idea how old it is but I can remember my uncle always having it in his truck. My dad started making knifes for his friends in the late 80's. This is one of the first knifes he made.This is the last one. I've had it in my toolbox for 9 years now.He was never happy with this one and I was always drawn to it?These two were just interesting to me so they were put in a box that I can get to easily.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

This is the last one. I've had it in my toolbox for 9 years now.

That's a handsome knife (I like the high shoulder) and an efficient sheath.