Original Item: Only One Available. This is an excellent, field used example of the U.S. Navy Mark 1 fighting knife, manufactured by the PAL Cutlery Company, complete with a U.S. Navy Issue leather scabbard.

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 their existing stock of completed knives and knife parts.

While PAL was originally a manufacturer of pocketknives, 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" clip point 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) - 35 / MADE IN USA and U.S.N. / MARK 1 on the other side. The knife is in excellent used condition, with the blade still showing little of the original parkerized finish, as well as the original factory grind marks. It has been sharpened very little after production, and is still quite sharp. The hilt is composed of multiple thin leather washers, with multi-colored plastic spacers at the ends, in this case black, yellow, red, and black. The spacers do have some cracks, as they were not made of a stable type of plastic.

The scabbard is the earliest leather MK1 version which is nicely marked USN on the front side, and is in very good used condition. The leather is solid, and the snap functional, with 50% of the finish still on the rivets on the body. The snap is missing the top, but still functions, and this is really a great example. The back is written on with the name Saunders, the name of the soldier it was issued to, which makes this an excellent research opportunity.

Overall this is a great example of a PAL 35 USN Mark 1 combat knife with a nice named scabbard. No collection of World War II US military knives is complete without a Mark 1, and this is the perfect opportunity to acquire one that is in great shape.

Dimensions:
Blade length: 5 1/4”
Blade Style: Clip-point "Bowie"
Overall length: 10”
Crossguard: 1 1/2”
Scabbard Length: 5 3/4" + Belt Frog