Item Description
Original Item: Only One Available. This is an excellent condition example of the U.S. PAL RH 36 fighting knife, manufactured by the PAL Cutlery Company. It is clearly marked on one side of the blade: RH – PAL MADE IN USA – 36.
The knife is in near excellent condition, with the blade retaining about 90%+ of its original grayish parkerized finish. The blade shows only some light finish wear from insertion and removal from the leather scabbard. The blade has been sharpened, as expected of a knife that saw service in the field. The hilt is composed of multiple thin leather washers, with the ones closest to the cross guard and pommel cap being of red plastic.
The scabbard is the earliest leather version which was personalized by the owner with designs and Island names to chronicle their movement through the Solomon Islands in the pacific theater of WWII, and ends in the Philippines:
MUNDA
SASAVELE
1943
LUZON
1945
Overall this is a very high condition example of a wonderful PAL 36 USN combat knife with a nice condition scabbard with excellent WW2 Personalization. No collection of World War II US military knives is complete without a PAL knife.
According to The Official Price Guide of Collector Knives by C Houston Price & Mark D Zaleysky, PAL was originally used as a trademark by the Utica Knife & Razor Company of Utica, NY from about 1924-1939. PAL marked knives of that era used blades imported from Germany, and the blades typically bore the word “Germany” as well. Another company using the name PAL was established in Chicago in 1934. This company was known as the Pal Blade Company of Chicago, and was started by Otto Kraus. In 1935 the two “PAL” companies merged into one, known simply as the PAL Blade Company, and opened a manufacturing facility in Plattsburg, NY. Around 1940 PAL purchased the cutlery division of the Remington Arms Company, including of their existing stock of completed knives and knife parts.
While PAL was originally a manufacturer of pocketknives, but after the Remington acquisition they expanded their range of products to include a variety of fixed blade knives as well. PAL received a number of US government knife contracts during World War II and produced thousands of combat knives during the war years. Pal went out of business in 1953.The USN Mark 1 combat knife was produced by a variety of manufactures during World War II and was issued to Navy personnel by the thousands. It had a 5 ¼” long blade and was patterned after typical hunting and sideknives of the era. The subsequent Mark 2 knife had a longer 7” blade.
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