These scarce knives were adopted by the U.S. Army Air Force in October 1942 for use in the B-4 Emergency Bail Out Kit, fitted with a metal blade guard and carried in a gray scabbard usually attached to the parachute harness. These replaced the older, longer machete and have a 10-inch blade with the entire knife measuring only 11 ½ inches when folded. These were made by three contractors: Case, Collins and Cattaraugus, with bright blades. (Cole illustrates also illustrates one by “Imperial, Prov. R.I.” with a slightly different shaped handle and parkerized blade.)  This one is crisply marked on the blade, “Cattaraugus / U.S.A.” in script. It does not have the scabbard, but does have the separate black metal blade guard. The blade is smooth metal, silver gray with dark gray age spots, as is the guard. There are three impact points to the edge, close to one another and about fingernail size, about one third of the way from the round tip of the blade. The grips are black plastic and firmly in place. On the right hand side a thin set of initials are scratched in: “RKS” (or RKJ with a looping top.) The grips show use but only a couple very small nicks to the lower edge, no significant chips and no cracks. The black metal guard shows rubs and wear to the finish with a few small areas of light brown corrosion.

This is a scarce knife. See Cole, Book III, p.138-139, No. 1 for an identical example.  [sr][ph:L]

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