Item Description
Original Item: Only One Available. Theater knives are knives made by military personnel in the various theaters of war. Each knife is unique in its own way due to the maker's style, preferences and materials available. Most theater knives were made from spare parts, wreckage, tools and already existing blades.
These knives were made by the armorers and engineers on request. The larger ships needed to have skilled fabricators on board to make repairs and modifications to weapons and gear. Usually the blades were made from existing weapons or from steel components, and the hilts were cast from metals such as aluminum or zinc.
This example was made from the blade of an Ontario M3 or Mk3 Fighting Knife. The M3 fighting knife or M3 trench knife was an American military combat knife first issued in March 1943. The M3 was originally designated for issue to soldiers not otherwise equipped with a bayonet. However, it was particularly designed for use by forces in need of a close combat knife, such as Airbornes and Army Rangers, so these units received priority for the M3 at the start of production. As more M3 knives became available in 1943 and 1944, the knife was issued to other soldiers such as Army Air Corps crewmen and soldiers not otherwise equipped with a bayonet, including soldiers issued the M1 Carbine or a submachine gun such as the M3 “grease gun.
This example has a very nice one piece aluminum hilt, cast directly onto the tang of the knife. It has both a pommel and crossguard as part of the casting, around a comfortable tapered grip with “knuckle dusters”. The handle itself has the same appearance as the rare Everitt fighting knife and may have been modeled after one.
It comes in a nice WWII issue OD green thermoplastic impregnated cotton fabric scabbard marked U.S. M8A1 / B.M. CO., also offered in very good condition. This later production scabbard with the retaining loop. There is some wear to the scabbard, but it still has all of the original green paint. The throat shows only slight wear to the finish, as shown. The canvas is in very good condition, and the snap still functions, with light finish wear. The scabbard was manufactured by Beckwith Mfg Co., a division of Victory Plastics, who manufactured many scabbards during the war.
A lovely set ready for further research and display.
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