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.

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.

This particular example was manufactured by the PAL Cutlery Company and is clearly marked on one side of the blade: RH – PAL MADE IN USA – 36. The knife is in very good condition, with the blade retaining about much of its original grayish parkerized finish, which was then painted black at arsenal. The blade has been sharpened on the lower edge, and is now somewhat dull, but still has the factory edge on the top edge. The hilt is composed of multiple thin leather washers, with the ones closest to the cross guard and pommel being of red and black plastic. The hilt washers are also in near excellent condition as well, and show only some light scuffing and very minor handling wear. The leather washers have shrunk somewhat due to age and dryness, so there is some play in the cross guard.

The scabbard is the later MK 2 version, very similar in construction to the M8 scabbard for the M3 fighting knife, with a fiberglass body, metal throat, and canvas frog and securing strap. The front of the throat is marked U S N MK 2, and the rear is marked NORD - 4723 B.M. Co. with a stylized V P logo. The NORD number is for the US Navy contract it was produced under, which was delivered between November 1943 and July 1944. It was manufactured by Beckwith Mfg Co. a division of Victory Plastics.

Overall this is a very high condition example of a wonderful PAL 36 USN combat knife with a nice condition scabbard. No collection of World War II US military knives is complete without a PAL knife.