information on USMC KABAR Fighting Knife, Camillus 12"

[knives4me]

Hello all, I am pleased to be part of the forum, I am also a newbie to collecting these knives. Can you all help with information on are these knives, are both from Vietnam or reproductions how can one tell if they original?

 

[knives4me]

I have been contemplating polishing my Ka-Bar fighting knife. Does this change the collectability of the knife or ruin the knife-like cleaning a coin would devalue the coin?

 

[John Wilson]

Any time you remove the patina from a collectible you remove the collector value. But the reality is that KaBars (most military surplus for that matter) don’t have much collector value on their own. They made many millions of them. They’re still in production.

Unless you can tie this particular knife to an event or a famous soldier there’s no real monetary value. The bright side is you can recondition it to your liking and and it will be worth about the same amount, but if you do it likely will never be considered collectible. I wouldn’t lose an ounce of sleep over that, though.

 

[knives4me]

Any time you remove the patina from a collectible you remove the collector value. But the reality is that KaBars (most military surplus for that matter) don’t have much collector value on their own. They made many millions of them. They’re still in production.

Unless you can tie this particular knife to an event or a famous soldier there’s no real monetary value. The bright side is you can recondition it to your liking and and it will be worth about the same amount, but if you do it likely will never be considered collectible. I wouldn’t lose an ounce of sleep over that, though.

thank you

 

[knives4me]

Thanks for the replies,
How can I tell if my 2 knives above the Ka-Bar and Camillus are reproductions?

 

[tkroenlein]

Here's a random search result. Usually when you are trying to date a production type knife, the stamps are very important. Military issue will add another layer to reading the stamps.

KA-BAR TANG STAMPS

There are an estimate 200 KA-BAR tang stamps used since 1898. However, only a fraction of those are known today and even fewer used on a regular basis. Some of the more prominent tang stamps are …

officialkabar.wordpress.com

 

[oldknife]

I can't tell if your knife is original or not, but I do know if you refinish them you can't the money out of your time, here are two WW2 knives I re did And just did not get that much for them, if you are happy with it I would leave it be. Deane

 

[knives4me]

Wow-what a beautifully done job on the knives. what did you have to do to get them to this point? How did you finish the handles?

 

[oldknife]

I re-ground them used stone's and sand paper to finish them, made new guards and but caps, the leather is finished with super glue, may not be the best way to finish leather but it looked good. Deane

 

[knives4me]

thank you, Deane