HJ with bowie blade

[Wim Vangossum]

Hi everyone,


Pictured this dagger in a private collection. A late unmarked HJ knife with bowie blade. I' m aware of the WKC bagged pieces. Thoughts on this one?


Regards, Wim :)

[Santi]

The knife as a whole looks very nice. Although that i'm not familiar with many examples with bowie blade, i remember seeing some photos in the past and i think everybody liked it. Maybe the other HJ knives collectors can help more, but i'm pretty positive about this one. I didn't find any red flags.

[Swordfish]

Don't know how relevant this is, but there appears to be a small gap between the blade buffer and blade.

Perhaps this was a standard HJ, with a hand embellished bowie sharpening by either the owner, or perhaps a liberator who decided to use it as a fishing knife. It does not appear to have markings on the blade so gleaning much further would be tough.

[Waffenleite]

I have found TWO of this style directly from WWII veterans and I got a MINT one with the WKC TM from Bob Grant who purchased his from a WWII veteran in a motel buy.
These were the last ditch WKC production models with the nice bowie style blade. Neither of mine had a WKC mark, but the construction was the same as the one pictured here.
The one with the WKC Knight's Head TM had a ricasso that was twice as long as the one pictured.
ALSO, on one of my unmarked ones, you can see a slight mark at the point where the blade dissappears into the crossguard that MAY be the top of the WKC Knight's Helmet, but I can't tell forsure.
So, in my opinion, these are WKC products and definately a wartime production model.
Ron Weinand

[Wim Vangossum]

Hi Ron. I'm glad I can give you a warm welcome on this forum. I agree with this theory.

Regards, Wim :)

[Santi]

I have found TWO of this style directly from WWII veterans and I got a MINT one with the WKC TM from Bob Grant who purchased his from a WWII veteran in a motel buy.
These were the last ditch WKC production models with the nice bowie style blade. Neither of mine had a WKC mark, but the construction was the same as the one pictured here.
The one with the WKC Knight's Head TM had a ricasso that was twice as long as the one pictured.
ALSO, on one of my unmarked ones, you can see a slight mark at the point where the blade dissappears into the crossguard that MAY be the top of the WKC Knight's Helmet, but I can't tell forsure.
So, in my opinion, these are WKC products and definately a wartime production model.
Ron Weinand
That is an excellent piece of news for the HJ knives collectors community!
Thank you, Ron, for sharing it. :thumbup:

[Swordfish]

Welcome aboard Ron. Thank you for contributing.

It would be interesting to x-ray one of these like has been done with other variants in the past.

If Rons correct, and these were produced later, what was the reason for "bowie" style blades being used? Simply due to shortages and to use remaining stocks? It doesn't sound like these would be found in a WKC sales catalogue. I'd also be curious if anyone has stumbled accross any period documentation on these peculiar HJs. Certainly if enough have been dug up from vets, and the provenace is clean, then I would suspect that indeed there were period runs. HJs, like we all know, are not like 2nd Lufts or Heers in that Army of occupation GIs would not be building toys to take home from loose stock and parts. The examples i've seen, all on the net, really don't appear to have been tampered with and their grip rivets have all looked good.

I guess unless any period documentation or photographic evidence arises, these will remain a curio and an enigma.

Good discussion.
Tom