US fighting knife ground find

Received this one today, found near US para positions near Lent (Nijmegen)

 

Not a bad little number. How did you get hold of that then?

 

I am in touch with the EOD Company that works there

 

Nice one. What other 'finds' have you came across?

 

Remarkably good condition M8 scabbard (apart from the missing fabric part )

Does the M3 blade have any markings?

 

Nice one. What other 'finds' have you came across?


capbadges,german dog tags, droppingcontainers, royal artillery equipment, another fighting knife (which now is in Fort Bragg),helmets, tripod of German MG which now is in the Airborne Museum Hartenstein, all kind of bottles

 

Remarkably good condition M8 scabbard (apart from the missing fabric part )

Does the M3 blade have any markings?


Have to clean it, but can read US M3 on it

 

Wow! Amazing. The EOD? Is that Explosive Ordinance Disposal? I didn't know things like that were still around. After all these years, you'd have thought everything would have been salvaged already. I bet those Helmets are worth a bob or two...

 

It is a private EOD company with a number of ex military EODers who are cleaning that area between Lent and Nijmegen (also parts of the city) this area the so called De Waalsprong, as "cleaned"for ammo for building development for some 7 years now ( well over the 30.000 pieces are found).
I have done some research for them the last couple of years.

The helmets are mainly german and British.

the US airborne stuff they have found is, 75mm shells,2x M3 knifes,gasmask, sell made browning holster,dominostones, WACO glider loading scale, rifle grenade launcher, coca cola bottles, eating can,fork, and knife

 

Nice find. I have a M3 trench knife made by Imperial which has been around for decades, so probably belonged to an uncle who served in the war.

Here's a bit of information on the knives and scabbards.

The M3 fighting knife was developed in 1943 and hundreds of thousands were produced. The knife was associated with elite forces such as the 101st Airborne who wore it strapped to the lower leg.<?xml:namespace prefix = v ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" /><v:shape id=_x0000_i1025 style="WIDTH: 5in; HEIGHT: 66pt" alt="M3 M-3 Fighting Trench Knife, World War II 1943 1944" type="#_x0000_t75"><v:imagedata o:href="http://www.olive-drab.com/images/knife_m3_horizontal_500.jpg" src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\Peter\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.jpg"></v:imagedata></v:shape>
Description of the M3 Fighting Knife

The M3 Fighting Knife -- also called the M-3 Trench Knife -- had a 6.75 inch spear point blade with sharpened 3.5 inch false edge, a handle made of compressed, stacked leather washers with 6 or 8 grooves, and a steel crossguard and pommel. The overall length is about 11.7 inches.
The M-3 was very similar to the US M4 bayonet used on the M1 carbine. The M-3 can be distinguished from the M-4 bayonet by the straight crossguard on the bayonet vs. the angle in the M-3 Knife crossguard. Of course the bayonet crossguard has a hole for the Carbine muzzle.
The metal parts of early M-3 Knives were blued, replaced by the Parkerized finish seen on most M-3s.
M-3 Fighting Knife Markings

The M3 fighting knife was made in three different patterns. The first pattern was stamped with US M3, the manufacturer name, and the date 1943 on the knife blade. The second pattern was the same but without the date (photo, left). The third pattern moved the undated markings to the underside of the crossguard, for example "US M3 Utica." The pommel may be stamped on the end with the U.S. Ordnance flaming bomb symbol. Collectors refer to the M3 as guard marked or blade marked in discussing these differences.
The U.S. M3 Knife was manufactured by a total of nine vendors:
<TABLE class=MsoNormalTable style="WIDTH: 100%; mso-cellspacing: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR style="mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes"><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #ece9d8; PADDING-RIGHT: 3.75pt; BORDER-TOP: #ece9d8; PADDING-LEFT: 3.75pt; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3.75pt; BORDER-LEFT: #ece9d8; PADDING-TOP: 3.75pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: #ece9d8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent">

• Aerial (Aerial Cutlery Mfg. Co.)
• Boker (H. Boker & Co.)
• Camillus (Camillus Cutlery co.)
• Case (W.R. Case & Sons)
• Imperial (Imperial Knife Co.)
• Kinfolks (Kinfolks Inc.)
• Pal (Pal Blade & Tool Co.)
• Robeson (Robeson Cutlery Co.)
• <ST1:p</ST1:pUtica (Utica Cutlery Co.)

</TD><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #ece9d8; PADDING-RIGHT: 3.75pt; BORDER-TOP: #ece9d8; PADDING-LEFT: 3.75pt; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3.75pt; BORDER-LEFT: #ece9d8; PADDING-TOP: 3.75pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: #ece9d8; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent"><v:shape id=_x0000_i1026 style="WIDTH: 126pt; HEIGHT: 257.25pt" alt="M3 strapped to leg of paratrooper" type="#_x0000_t75"><v:imagedata o:href="http://www.olive-drab.com/images/knife_m3_legstrapped_175.jpg" src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\Peter\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image003.jpg"></v:imagedata></v:shape>





</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Scabbard for the M-3 Knife

The original scabbard (or sheath) for the M-3 Knife was the leather M6, developed with the knife in 1943. The M-6 had a body made of two pieces of leather riveted together, with a metal shield near the bottom. There is a snap loop to hold the knife handle. The leather is doubled over and riveted at top to hold an M-1910 belt hook. M6 sheaths were often cut down to eliminate the metal hook at the top which interfered with strapping it to the leg, paratrooper style (photo above, right).
Within a year, the leather sheath was replaced by the M8 or M8A1 olive drab fiberglass body with steel throat.
Where to Buy the M3 Knife

Camillus Cutlery still manufactures the U.S. M3 Fighting Knife, available from Brigade Quartermasters, Ltd. at this link.<v:shape id=_x0000_i1027 style="WIDTH: 0.75pt; HEIGHT: 0.75pt" alt="icon" type="#_x0000_t75"> <v:imagedata o:href="http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=zC1FBJYqpzo&bids=16296.460385971&type=10&subid=" src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\Peter\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image005.gif"></v:imagedata></v:shape>


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Well, the photos didn't make it. I'll try again.

JT

 

Indeed, the condition on the leather is suburb, will put some leather protection stuff on it, that is also used by museums for preservation

 

or even older, nijmegen is one of the oldest towns in the netherlands, a lot of stuff from 100 years ago also surfaced, and some indeed in amazing condition