rcmodel
Member in memoriam
So what’s a Theater Knife you might ask?
No, it’s not a fighting knife you take to the Movies or the Opera.
The term Theater Knife was coined by collectors after WWII, and used to describe knives made by soldiers, sailors & airmen, or by civilian hobbyists, and sent to the GI’s overseas in the Pacific or European Theater of operations.
As such, Theater Knives are found ranging in quality from very crude, to pretty darn good, as these examples illustrate.
The top one has a a nicely ground high carbon steel blade with cast aluminum guard & pommel, and sheet aluminum & fancy grain hardwood handle.
The bottom one is double edge dagger with brass and Plexiglas handle washers, held on with a simple rusty roll-pin.
I made the sheath for it because it kept falling off the display stand and trying to stab me in the foot every time I walked by it!
I think it's possessed by an angry WWII spirit!
Still another similar to the top one, but not as skillfully ground blade.
And the last one a 8” sticker with a brazed on tang with a 1928 Indian Head Nickel inlayed in the butt.
I made the sheath for it too, just for self-preservation in the gun room when I went in there with it.
They will be found with cast aluminum handles, colorful Plexiglas washers, and aircraft aluminum or shell casing brass washer spacers.
And about anything else a GI in Theater, or a stateside hobbyist making knives for the war effort could scrounge up during rationing in WWII to make a knife out of.
I have owned a lot of them over the years, but they never really interested me all that much if I couldn't identify who made them or who used them.
And they are seldom if ever blade marked by the maker, and most of the sheaths that might have been marked by the owner rotted off by now..
So that's all I got.
You just can’t keep them all!
rc
No, it’s not a fighting knife you take to the Movies or the Opera.
The term Theater Knife was coined by collectors after WWII, and used to describe knives made by soldiers, sailors & airmen, or by civilian hobbyists, and sent to the GI’s overseas in the Pacific or European Theater of operations.
As such, Theater Knives are found ranging in quality from very crude, to pretty darn good, as these examples illustrate.
The top one has a a nicely ground high carbon steel blade with cast aluminum guard & pommel, and sheet aluminum & fancy grain hardwood handle.
The bottom one is double edge dagger with brass and Plexiglas handle washers, held on with a simple rusty roll-pin.
I made the sheath for it because it kept falling off the display stand and trying to stab me in the foot every time I walked by it!
I think it's possessed by an angry WWII spirit!
Still another similar to the top one, but not as skillfully ground blade.
And the last one a 8” sticker with a brazed on tang with a 1928 Indian Head Nickel inlayed in the butt.
I made the sheath for it too, just for self-preservation in the gun room when I went in there with it.
They will be found with cast aluminum handles, colorful Plexiglas washers, and aircraft aluminum or shell casing brass washer spacers.
And about anything else a GI in Theater, or a stateside hobbyist making knives for the war effort could scrounge up during rationing in WWII to make a knife out of.
I have owned a lot of them over the years, but they never really interested me all that much if I couldn't identify who made them or who used them.
And they are seldom if ever blade marked by the maker, and most of the sheaths that might have been marked by the owner rotted off by now..
So that's all I got.
You just can’t keep them all!
rc
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