I often get questions about restoring or repairing an old WW-II Commando Knife. The correct choice is an individual decision. One thing to keep in mind is whatever you do cannot usually be undone. So, will what you are going to do improve the knife, and for what reason? These are the two primary questions you should ask yourself. Will it restore the knife to a serviceable condition or ruin the patina while hoping to increase the sales price/profit?

In this case I had a valuable Wilkinson Second Pattern, named knife, with a butchered tip. It had been broken and then made worse by someone with a grinder trying to reshape the tip. First off if you touch a power tool to one of these knives I hope the bluebird of happiness flies right up your......well you know. Hand tools only.

BEFORE

Here it was just as I started to file it back to shape. Then I decided to take some photos to show how bad it was. I used a fine toothed 6 inch file to start with. The blades are about the same hardness as a bayonet so they will file. GO SLOW! You do not want to add more scratches and gouges to the damage already present. Once I had re-established the point on center then I worked on blending in the bevels. Finally I switched to some fine grit sanding paper backed up by a piece of flat wood. I could go further but for now I am satisfied and the ugliness that bothered me has been minimized. Whether I will try to get any of the Dremel tracks off the rest of the blade remains to be decided. I think you will agree it looks better than being left in its previous sorry state. I am hoping to find a ragged 3rd pattern to illustrate further blade restoration on. If you have a beater you want to donate let me know.

BEFORE

AFTER

To the naked eye the blade looks a lot better than this highly magnified image would make it seem. But in time I may go back and refine it a little more.

Wishing you all a Happy and Safe New Year.

Wishing all of my friends and visitors a very Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! At this time of year keep all of our servicemen in your thoughts and prayers, those serving abroad and at home. Remember our veterans who fought in all of our past wars. Without their sacrifices we might not have the personal and religious freedoms we have today. AND Never forget the TRUE meaning of the Christmas holiday and keep it holy.

I happened to be taking some of my knives out for photos and decided to get better pictures of this S.O.E. "sticker." Now for those forumites who have nothing better to do than talk trash, here is a knife to really get you going. This was bought by a very reputable collector from the widow of the S.O.E. Agent who owned and carried it during WW-II. If you have not seen it earlier on this website I have added a couple more photos. It is clearly stamped by the Maker/seller. The S.O.E. Agent was stationed in Poona, India and he may have bought this while passing through Australia. The stamps are "A&P" (Alcock & Pierce) and "DND" (Department of National Defense) on both the pommel and the sheath.

So, How are you going to explain that A&P did not make and sell fighting knives during the war? Tell me once again. How are you going to blame Peter Mason for this one?

December 7th "a Day which will live in infamy." It passed with little notice from the media. (You notice I did not say the News channels.) One of the main comments from the bland news, repeated by one and all as if from some 1984 Orwell directive, "This is the first year there are no survivors of the USS Arizona present at the ceremony." Well since I am writing a book on WW-II commando knives I have a very keen sense of how few survivors there are of that terrible war. Here is a photo of some rosy cheeked youths of No. 3 Cdo. who had just driven out the Germans and reclaimed the town for the native inhabitants. They are British but armed to the man with American Thompson sub-machine guns. One wonders how many of them survived the war and are still alive today. This is the real lost generation not (as Sociologists would have us believe) a population of Millenials living in their parents basements emerging only at meal times or to buy the latest X-box video. For all of you out there who served in the past or are still serving today, God Bless you and look over you. You are not forgotten by all.

Here is a snippet from the introduction to my book.

Back in the 1970s when I first began collecting F-S knives there was no internet and therefore no email. How many of you can imagine life before the internet? I bought one of my earliest World War Two First-Pattern Wilkinson knives via a land-line phone and snail-mail from a small knife shop a continent away. This knife came from way out in Oregon. My purchase was based on a tiny photo in a magazine called “Fighting Knives[1].” In the photo the shop-owner was holding two knives. I had to use a magnifying glass to identify the knives because the whole photo was not much bigger than a postage stamp! Despite the seller’s assertions that it was an original World War Two Wilkinson First Pattern knife I was skeptical. My skepticism was based on the fact the seller’s asking price was too low. Finally I decided that even if the knife was a post-war reproduction by Wilkinson it was still worth his asking price. I sent him a check for one hundred and twenty five dollars (no Paypal™ back then either). I will long remember that cold Christmas morning, opening the mailing tube with trepidation, and being greeted by that reassuring smell of aged leather and musty steel. Damned if it wasn’t a genuine World War Two Wilkinson First-Pattern knife worth approximately nine hundred dollars at the time. The moral of this story is, if you are a dealer, and a collector questions what you are selling, be nice to him and maybe he will explain that what you have to sell is more valuable (or not) than you think. Another tip is do not use knife collecting price guides twenty years out of date. We have steadily added to our collection of First Pattern knives since buying that one, but none so cheaply as that one from Oregon.


[1] “Fighting Knives” was published by Larry Flint with Greg Walker as editor. In my opinion it was the finest magazine ever published on the topic.