What About This Knife?

[Redbeard]

https://nordiskaknivar.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/anders-22.jpg

I have a knife similar to this, but without the horse head. It's a brass and wood handle, very simple.

Would that be out of place in a haversack? It's a hundreds of years old design, of Scandinavia origin, but it's a pretty popular one. I just wonder if would have been wide-spread enough by the 60s to be typical as those Nordic countries weren't really at peak immigration yet.

[Ealogo]

Re: What about this knife?

Looks really nice, I don't see why it should be out of place. I have a similar knife in my property in Cyprus here for a long time. I keep it strictly for events like this.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: What about this knife?

Possibly perfectly fine, but Lord's Encyclopedia refers to pocket knives as one of the most common dug items and they figure prominently in the contractor's report of items recovered from reburied bodies at Gettysburg (I think that reference is still available somewhere on this site). As a practical matter, too, unless you're detailed to the commissary to cut up the beef ration I think a pocket knife would be a better choice -- I have even seen it used in that application...

[Redbeard]

Re: What about this knife?

Fair point, as far as the folding knife vs straight knife. I generally do carry a folder, but due to some difficulty cutting some pork with the folder the last time out, I thought I might consider a straight knife. If that isn't an authentic option, then I'll refrain.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: What about this knife?

Fair point, as far as the folding knife vs straight knife. I generally do carry a folder, but due to some difficulty cutting some pork with the folder the last time out, I thought I might consider a straight knife. If that isn't an authentic option, then I'll refrain.

I wouldn't say it wasn't authentic -- the variety of personal items carried into the field was pretty extensive. And by the time of the civil war there were already enough Scandinavians for an entire Wisconsin regiment. It may have been just the one, but if they were like the Germans there were several times as many of them serving in "American" regiments as in ethnic ones. Before the war there was a chain of Norwegian communities from New York to Indiana to Wisconsin.

One might have a harder time explaining it for a Confederate impression, but I know there were for example small Scandinavian communities in Texas going way back. Plus, I wouldn't have known it was a Scandinavian style if you hadn't said so, so there's that... :)

[Redbeard]

Re: What about this knife?



The blade in question.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: What about this knife?

Despite any implication to the contrary in my initial post, I'm having a tough time imagining anyone having a problem with this knife.