Joe,
Quote:
Originally Posted by crutchtip
Ron -
I don't think that the Commando you posted that belongs to a guy we know pre-dates Mitchell's Zach fighter. In fact, if reading Gaddis, page 69, he pretty much says most of the Commando models were made in the period of mid to late 1942 into early 1943 when he was experimenting with fighting blades.
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First of all that knife is not a Commando. I invite you to post a photo of that knife together with any "real" Commando and point out the similarities. I don't think you will do this because your claim is ridiculous. It's put up or shut up time, Joe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by crutchtip
I am going with what Gaddis states in the chapter beginning on page 65 and also from memory about conversations with Bob. According to him, there is not a journal entry describing a double hilt fighting knife prior to the the Zacharias fighter, the very first fighter Bo ever made. He even alludes the that during the entry to the chapter.
Apparently you didn't bother to knock the dust off your copy and read it  , so I will put it here:
"During the last half of 1942 and into the first couple of months of 1943, Bo experimented with a few combat knife designs besides the Zacharias-Randall style. At first some men had him modify his catalog Models 6 and 7 hunters for combat duty. This consisted of sharpening the blade on the top edge and using a double hilt. The handles were of stag but usually not crown. He adopted the term "Commando" to denote these earliest of his double-hilted combat knives". |
You refer to
your memory of a conversation with Bob stating that there were no double hilt fighting knives made before the Zacharias (After he went through every entry in Bo's journal from 1940 through the 1st half of 1942?). That's not in the book, Joe! I dispute that claim of yours. Also, why are you posting excerpts from Bob's book about knives made from the last half of '42 when my claim is that the knife is earlier? Again, ridiculous.