Dutch M3 clone ????

[PREST1]

The two little holes for pinning the bayonet crossguard to the tang give it away !

Yes and the reason the other holes are so much bigger is because the crossguard on the fighting knife are thinner than the one on the baynet. So instead of just grinding a little in the side of the hole , they just drilled them a little bigger

I wonder if it was an issue piece, an experimental arsenal
conversion/rework, or commercial surplus ?

I wonder about that too.

Anyway.. Here's a pic of the other fighting knife

[ncblksmth1]

Good looking fantasy piece. There would be no need of the two pin marks with a NON pinned guard. The guard of an M3 is straight on one end and bent forward on the other. The grips are typical Dutch M4 Bayonet grips. If this was an M3 Knife we would have seen more on the market.

Well thats my opinion. I do however like the knife and wish I had one.

[PREST1]

These are not nesessarly a fantasy piece. They turn up in Norway about once a year. So far i know about 6 .

Think it might be a trial model for the RNoAF field knife

[mayralphie]

Here is one I picked up several years ago, heavy use.

[PREST1]

looks very similar

[emileverbunt]

These combat knifes have been identified as Royal Netherlands Marine Corps issue in an article by a Dutch collector: Henri van Adelberg.

There are two variants known. These concur with the two shown in this thread. Quite likely they were modified in the Navy workshop. Not too difficult and plenty of Dutch M3 clones sitting around, when the M1 carbine was phased out.

The Dutch marines do a lot of training in Norway, which might explain the knifes turning up over there.

Cheers.
Emile

[HgF]

I also have such a knife. (Stockholm, Sweden). My shows traces of use with grind marks on the blade. The handle is turned upside down, but the screws have corroded stiff - so I can´t take i apart for inspection. The scabbard is a US M6 (Viner Bros 1943). I bought this knife many years ago from a place in western Sweden near the Norwegian border.
I´m sorry - I don´t have the ability to send pictures.

[Reibert]

Hi, mates,

stumbled over this old thread.

This, particular, knife is a rare beast !

It´s a field knife of the norwegian "LKSK", ("Luftkrigsskolen"), (Air Force School).

AFAIK this pattern knife was originally destined as an aviator´s knife, but, never was introduced actually.

AFAIK Most of them were manufactured by KIFFE, JAPAN.

10 yrs. ago a collector´s mate wrote to me:

"Hello R.

Long time no see.

Have some new info on the RNoAF knife.

They say that only 500 was made. Most of them with no makers mark. But,,, there were made about 20 with "KIFFE" stamped on the blade.
It's the same mark as the japanese M4 bayonet so i do belive that theese were made in Japan.

Just got my hands on a marked one.

Regards
K ... "

My collection of edged weapons

My collection of edged weapons

[Sleepwalker]

Hi there,

these pieces are not Dutch.

These knives are called "Kniv, felt, M3" and were purchased for the Norwegian Air Force in 1986/87.
Norwegian stock number: 1005-25-103-8574.

According to the Norwegian equipment certificate, these surveyors should be issued to forces who were not equipped with the AG-3 and the associated bayonet. In this case, those were H&K MP5 and Walther P38 / P1 pistols.





Not very many of these knives were purchased, probably only a few hundred and these knives would have been replaced as early as the 1990s.

They are said to have been delivered to the six Luftvernbataljoner (air defense battalions) and the Luftvernskyteskolen (Air Force Schools) in Stavern and Rygge. In some locations they were probably issued, in others not, so there are still many unused knives.

The scabbards are likely to come from German production and were also used with the AG-3 bayonet.

As for the surveyors themselves, I think they are not homogeneous.

I suspect that, like parts of the AG-3 bayonets, they were assembled from recycled M3 / M4 blades, grip panels and new parts. The manufacturer Kiffe is noticeable on many of the blades of these felt knives. Often one does not recognize a manufacturer because "Kiffe" has slipped under the guard.

Discarded Dutch M4s were probably also bought and recycled, which explains the handle scales. In addition there is the Norwegian in-house production by Kongsberg.

So a lot of imported Dutch M4 and Kiffe-M4 converted to a surveyor. I couldn't find out who made these modifications. Norway did the same with parts of its AG-3 bayonets.


Regards

[Reibert]

Received another one in October last year.

Probably also Eickhorn and Hörster could have been manufactured this combat knife ?


Another RNoAF field knife
German bootknives