Cut down Patton sword fighting knife.

[pitfighter]

As many of you know, when the US entered WW2 there was a shortage of fighting knives.
The KaBar was designed in '42 and produced in '43
The M3 wasn't around until 1943.

One of the fixes was to take the M1913 Patton designed Cavalry Sword/Saber and cut it into three pieces, these "thirds" would be crafted into fighting knives.

Companies like San Antonio iron works and Anderson in CA performed the work, though no markings were made on the swords, certain factors differentiate the makes.
http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/for...m1913-patton-saber-hilt-section-sword-knives/

The "guard-section" knives are the most sought after.
The guard is HEAVY and the blade is sturdy, the tang runs the length of the grip and is the width of the blade.

This is one I found yesterday.
I thought you guys might enjoy it.
(I'm keeping the baby-vomit green paint as I think it was probably camouflage applied a long time ago, and I've grown to enjoy it.)

 

[bikerdoc]

Thanks for the cool info!

 

[hso]

What is the thickness at the guard?

 

[Obturation]

Cool. That "knife" is serious looking.

 

[lemaymiami]

That's quite a collection...

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

Looks a bit like a machete handle was used at least as an inspiration for the grips.

I'd love to see what they sold as a sheath for one of these.


Todd.

 

[pitfighter]

The guard on this example is a thin piece of steel, on some of the San Antonio variants it was thicker, with a piece of leather sandwiched between two pieces of metal.

The grip is the original Patton Saber hilt with the "sword-type" guard removed - nothing has been altered beyond that removal and the addition of the wafer thin guard.
Any similarity to a modern machete would speak to the origin of the machete design being inspired by the "several thousand" year old form of a traditional Western sword hilt.

The sheaths and scabbards for these were all different, the San Antonio variants had a floral design beautifully hand crafted into the leather. Others were far more rudimentary - in many cases basically two oblong pieces of leather sewn together. I will likely look to house this in a period correct US or UK bayonet scabbard - one of the 16" USN 1905 scabbards will probably work.

It is a monster of a blade and heavy, too, on the one hand I'd have preferred to lug the weight in spare ammunition, but that said, if I had to get close and personal, I'd be well prepared.

Ref. The FS daggers, they are my primary focus, the ones shown are my 3rd Pattern WW2 issue variants - some machine tooled, some hand drawn and one Tropical handle.

 

[theotherwaldo]

I've heard that some of these cut-down swords came with similarly cut-down sword scabbards, and that these scabbards were popular for a short while because they didn't rot in the tropical moisture, but were discarded because they were heavy and noisy.

 

[Boattale]

I had no idea there was such a thing. Fascinating information and photos.