British Army Knife

[pwb]

As I've said before, I'm looking for a service jack knife in carbon steel with a marlin spike (like the picture).

Anyone know where I should try to get one that isn't going to cost its own weight in gold?

I know it's not exactly what your looking for and you've probably already discounted it, but ' Sheffield Knives ' have a carbon steel bladed navy clasp knife with marlin spike but no can opener and black plastic handles.

http://www.sheffieldknives.co.uk/acatalog/Seamens_Knives.html

Cheers, Pete.

 

[andybysea]

Forge corvus, soldier of fortune sell the 50's version for a tenner, i got mine from there and its carbon,and gets a razor edge on it.

http://www.sofmilitary.co.uk/reenactors/index.asp go to brit ww2 look in equipment link, then personnel equipment its on last page.

 

[Stephen Conkie]

I checked out so sofmilittary.....and eventually found my way onto sheffield-made.com, which looks ok for non-specialist items. Have emailed them to ask what steel they use and what HRC it is, but they do a very nice-looking BAK re-issue from the 50s. Only thing is, its in stainless. Will post their reply, as if its got an HRC of 56 or above, it should be at least worth having. Unfortunately for me, sheffield-made sell the same stainless BAK for 2/3 the price I paid at greenmanbushcraft.co.uk!

 

[Stephen Conkie]

Addendum
After MUCH sharpening and stropping I can confirm that the BAK does not in fact hold a very good edge. Sheffield-made have no techincal data on the steel used for any of their models apart from advising the A. Wright carbon blades are HRC 58 and the rest of their range is "from 54-58". Given its robustness, Marlin spike and lambsfooted main blade, I still prefer a BAK hands down to a SAK for most purposes.....you could probalby use it as a small hammer! Obviously it couldn't be a main knife away from civilisation, but I still love it and have bought the Belgian one from 1951 from specialistauctions to compare. I definitely think its worth having

 

[Stephen Conkie]

Got the Belgian one y/day from 1951 and it definitely seems to take a better edge. Given it was only £7, its probably the best multitool for the money you can get!

 

[basha]

If you have bought one of the Belgium knives as shown in photo in Post no. 20, the ‘ABL’ knife was manufactured in Belgium under licence from Sheffield(?). ABL stands for ‘Armee Belge Leger’.

I bought one of these last year, for five pounds, at the ‘War and Peace’ show in Kent. It was new/old stock, I polished out a few rust stains and it came up beautifully. One Army surplus stall had A couple of original wooden cases containing probably 100 or so of them, unused and tied together in bunches of six, still partially covered in grease, from the factory I assume.

They were all dated 1951 I think. Some of the metal had rusted, but would still have made an interesting project for refurbishment.

They are a very solid knife and have a really heavy slip joint. I think they are a nice piece of knife nostalgia, particularly if you could find an old British one.

My EDC is a SAK but the old Jack knives have a certain charm; I would still use it.

 

[MikeE]

I have my dads issued one from the 50s and it takes and holds a wicked edge. My own was newer (well a bit!) and is OK though not so good as me dads!

 

[Stephen Conkie]

The '51 I got took about an hour or so to get all nice and "mine", with medium patina, but I think no loss of structural integrity. The springs are so strong I have to adopt a special technique to open the lambsfoot..either that or I'm a wimp. The only wierd thing about it was the scales seem to've been worn away like no-one's business on either side and either face and there are scoremarks on both linings. Don't know what that would've been from, but it looks almost like the only part that was used. Hhm