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Old 10-24-2014, 06:14 PM
BoBlade BoBlade is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 955
10-4 on the forum thing, Jack.

Regarding my low S 3-7: For sure the top quillion was removed after it left the shop as a double hilted fighter. On pages 104-110 of his book, Gaddis talks about Bo working on his new postwar knives during the summer of 1945: After developing the Big Game Skinner, "Bo focused his full attention on modifying the original hunter into a handier and more graceful general duty hunting knife........The hilt was thinner and it's extension shorter than original hunter, which had Fighter hilts with the top quillion removed. Bo brought the top side of this new hilt closer to the level of the blade back to allow comfortable thumb placement when using the choked up grip". The reason a cut down fighter hilt was employed during WWII was the fighter hilt was cast at that time. There just wasn't enough hunter volume to justify the expense of casting a new single quillion version or taking the time to machine a new hilt from scratch. It was much easier and less costly to simply lop off the top quillion from a fighter hilt. Here are a few pics of an early WWII Hunter. You can see how it's hilt differs from a conventional Model 3 hilt:






Sometimes you'll see Model 3 hilts that aren't flush with the top of the blade and sometimes they won't be perfectly symmetric. This has everything to do with the shop worker who's doing the rough grinding. The older the knife, the higher probability you'll see some imperfection.

I'm now going to do something I've never done before in print, and that's to state that I believe Bo's memory was not fully intact when he spoke to Gaddis about the timing of the Hunter being modified: IMO it was NOT post war (Summer of '45), but sometime in 1944! The primary "tell" of a WWII Hunter is a brass washer and nut at the butt. Post war through the decade of the 40's, field knives had a peened butt. This is why you ALMOST NEVER see an early Model 4 (Or any other mid '40's field knife) with a brass nut and washer. (There was at least one exception: In Gaddis' book on page 105 is a photo of Bo's Circa 1946 Fisherman knife. You'll notice it has a brass nut. Bo didn't want to take the chance of the handle of his personal knife loosening up without an ability to tighten it!). Of all the WWII Hunters made, the VAST MAJORITY were of the redesigned variety! Note that there was some top quillion evolution going on during WWII as the general height of the top quillion gradually got closer to the level of the blade. By the time the war ended, they were pretty much flush and similar to post WWII Model 3's.

Now while I'm at it, I'm going to make a correction to Sheldon's description of one of my knives on page 30 of his book: That knife is a WWII Hunter and not a post war Model 3. In explanation, I sat down with Sheldon and went over my knives several years before he published his book. He took notes on each of my knives, but somehow got confused on a few of them. I never had a chance to proof the book before it went to print.

Best,

Ron

Last edited by BoBlade; 10-25-2014 at 12:37 AM.
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