Original Item: Only One Available.  This is a great example of the relatively scarce OSS Drop Knife, 2nd pattern. It was purchased directly from a collector, and is in very good condition. These knives were manufactured cheaply during WW2, and were intended to be "dropped" behind enemy lines to provide weapons for resistance fighters.

This example has an 8 inch blade and an overall length of 13 1/4 inches, and is in very good condition. The blade does have some oxidation, but is overall in great shape. The rubber grip is now relatively hard, due to the age, but it still has all of the texture and no cracks that we can see. Scabbard is in great shape, and fits the blade well. It does show signs of past pitting, but it is unclear whether this is from before or after it was converted to a drop knife scabbard.

The OSS (Office of Strategic Services) was formed by the US Government during World War II, as an intelligence agency that was tasked with performing and coordinating espionage activities behind enemy lines. The agency was the predecessor of today’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The OSS not only coordinated and assisted local resistance fighters, but also provided weapons from time to time. Some of the more commonly known OSS weapons are the single shot “Liberator” .45 ACP pistol and the “Sterile Drop Knife”.

The OSS Drop Knife was manufactured in two patterns. The first was made from surplus US M-1873 Trapdoor rifle bayonets, and used their metal scabbard bodies as well. The second pattern, which this one is, used surplus M-1913 Patton Saber blades. The knives  were built using the original blades, which were cut down to size. A stamped metal, D-shaped handguard with 4 stamped spikes was attached around a hilt that utilized rubber hosing for the grip. The knives were unmarked (thus the “sterile” nomenclature), and were essentially inexpensive copies of the US M-1917 Trench Knife. The bayonet blade extended through the grip, forming the hilt, and extended out the back of the D-guard, where it was shaped into a point to form a skull crusher. The original metal scabbards were shortened and then crimped closed, and the scabbard was intended to be suspended from a leather belt frog.

While there is some dispute among researchers as the accuracy of the OSS association for these inexpensively produced “knuckle” fighting knives, but they have been referred to by this name by the most notable of US edged weapons researchers and authors including M.H. Cole, Michael Silvey, Homer Brett and Robert Buerlein. One way or the other the knives were produced in the US during World War II and appear to have been intended to provide cheap weapons to resistance fighters.