Rock Knocker
Active member
Around a year ago I traded my dad a new flashlight for this old knife. I remember since I was a kid my dad having an old ka bar from serving during Vietnam, knowing he hadn't used it maybe twice since then he was happy to give it up.
He dug around in his old hunting chest and gave me this knife... not quite what I remembered from 20 years ago but I figured I must just be remembering wrong. It had a small bit of the tip missing and I burned through a cheap sharpening stone to fix it then really got a good edge on it with some Arkansas stones.
I put it in my hunting gear pile without looking more into it. I took it out bowhunting once and nearly lost it because the leather sheath started falling apart once used.
Talking to my dad later he tells me "Hey, I found that old ka bar I meant to give you, I don't know what knife you got." So I did a little research and this is an old Pal RH 36 from WWII, we had a few family members serve then but we figured it must have been from my grandpa on my mom's side who served on PT boats in the Aleutian Islands.
It's a great knife with some great steel, I much prefer old antique blades to the more modern stuff I usually end up with.
I'm not sure I want to carry it around now and beat it up any more....
He dug around in his old hunting chest and gave me this knife... not quite what I remembered from 20 years ago but I figured I must just be remembering wrong. It had a small bit of the tip missing and I burned through a cheap sharpening stone to fix it then really got a good edge on it with some Arkansas stones.
I put it in my hunting gear pile without looking more into it. I took it out bowhunting once and nearly lost it because the leather sheath started falling apart once used.
Talking to my dad later he tells me "Hey, I found that old ka bar I meant to give you, I don't know what knife you got." So I did a little research and this is an old Pal RH 36 from WWII, we had a few family members serve then but we figured it must have been from my grandpa on my mom's side who served on PT boats in the Aleutian Islands.
It's a great knife with some great steel, I much prefer old antique blades to the more modern stuff I usually end up with.
I'm not sure I want to carry it around now and beat it up any more....