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Posted: 6/26/2016 11:42:55 PM EDT
| I was recently gifted a KABAR mk2 with fiberglass sheath. It's 7" blade is marked KABAR on one side and USN MK2 on the other. It has leather handle and the pommel is rectangular. I know these knives were issued to coast guard and navy ww2 through korea, but I'm curious is there any way to find out more about this knife? Also any idea the approx value of this knife? |
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The Navy Mark 2 was in the Navy system even after Vietnam.
I'd bet that if you looked around the Navy much you'd probably find a few Mark 2's in use or in Navy storage. Navy personnel, especially UDT-SEAL's often had cases of them to use as trading material, and many liked and used the Mark 2. The Mark 2 started out during WWII as the USMC knife. For much of the war the Navy used the USN Mark 1, which was a 5 inch bladed version of a small pre-war hunting knife. This was found somewhat lacking so the Navy began using the same knife the Marines used, which they called the Mark 2. Both the Mark 1 and Mark 2 originally used leather sheaths. Leather was determined not to stand up to salt water and use very well, so later in the war the gray fiberglass bayonet type scabbard was developed for both the Mark 1 and Mark 2. Later in the war the stamps on the blade were moved to the front of the cross guard after blade stamped knives tended to break through the stamps. The stamping process set up stress risers which made the blades more likely to break. I'm not sure what you mean about a "rectangular pommel". The standard pommels were round. Very early versions where screwed onto a threaded tang. Most production was pinned on with a cross pin. I'm not up on values these days, but value depends mostly on condition of the knife and sheath. |
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