This is a quick look at the Ka-Bar Zombie Death Dagger. The wicked blade on the Zombie Killer Death Dagger is modeled directly after the fearsome Western L77 blade - one of the great classic fighting knife designs of World War II.
Ka-Bar (trademarked as KA-BAR) is the contemporary popular name for the combat knife first adopted by the United States Marine Corps in November 1942 as the 1219C2 combat knife (later designated the USMC Mark 2 combat knife or Knife, Fighting Utility), and subsequently adopted by the United States Navy as the U.S. Navy utility knife, Mark 2. Additionally, Ka-Bar is the name of a related knife manufacturing company, Ka-Bar Knives., Inc. (formerly Union Cutlery Co.) of Olean, New York, a subsidiary of the Cutco Corporation.
Although Ka-Bar Knives, Inc. currently makes a wide variety of knives and cutlery, it is best known for the Ka-Bar Fighting/Utility knife, which has traditionally used a 7 in. (178 mm) 1095 carbon steel clip point blade and leather-washer handle.
The owner of the KA-BAR trademark, the Union Cutlery Co. of Olean, New York, began using the name on its knives and in its advertising in 1923 after receiving a testimonial letter from a fur trapper, who used the knife to kill a wounded bear that attacked him after his rifle jammed. According to company records, the letter was only partially legible, with "ka bar" readable as fragments of the phrase "kill a bear". In 1923, the company adopted the name Ka-Bar from the "bear story" as their trademark. Beginning in 1923, the KA-BAR trademark was used as a ricasso stamp by Union Cutlery Co. on its line of automatic switchblade pocket knives, including the KA-BAR Grizzly, KA-BAR Baby Grizzly, and KA-BAR Model 6110 Lever Release knives.
Camillus Cutlery Co., the first manufacturer to supply the Ka-Bar Combat Knife under contract, also produced the largest number of such knives, producing over 1 million examples marked "Camillus.N.Y." on the knife's crossguard before the war ended. Besides Camillus, the Union Cutlery Co., Robeson (ShurEdge) Cutlery Co., and the PAL Cutlery Co. all produced the Ka-Bar knife under military contract during World War II.
The Union Cutlery Company, the first company to manufacture a knife trademarked KA-BAR, was founded in 1897 as the Tidioute Cutlery Co. The Tidioute Cutlery Co. was dissolved and its assets taken over by Wallace R. Brown, who renamed the company Union Razor Co. which shortly thereafter became the Union Cutlery Company in 1909, headquartered in Olean, New York.
After the end of World War II, Utica Cutlery Co., Conetta Cutlery Co., Camillus Cutlery Co., and (beginning around 1980) the Ontario Knife Co. all produced the Ka-Bar under contract for the U.S. military. From approximately 1945-1952, Weske Cutlery Co. of Sandusky, Ohio purchased leftover and overrun parts from wartime Ka-Bar knife contractors and assembled them into knives for commercial sale, polishing out the original manufacturer and military markings, and fitting them with ungrooved leather handles. Though W.R. Case made two prototype Ka-Bar knives as part of a contract submission in 1942-43, no contract was ever awarded to Case for the production of military Ka-Bar Combat/Fighting Utility knives, either during or after World War II. In 1992, Case would release a modern commemorative of these, the Case XX USMC Fighting Utility Knife. The Case XX USMC Fighting Utility knife is actually manufactured for Case by Ontario Knife Co.
"KA-BAR" was a trademark of one of the four wartime manufacturers, Union Cutlery Co. and had been used on several of their previous knives since 1923. They stamped this trademark on the ricasso of all the Mark 2 knives they produced - and were second only to Camillus in terms of production, producing about 1 million knives during the wartime contract. Marines as early as 1944 began universally referring to their new combat knife as the "KA-BAR", regardless of manufacturer. The popular designation of the knife may also have resulted from contact with Marine Corps close combat instructors in San Diego, who appear to have used the term Ka-Bar when training recruits in the skill of knife fighting.
From 1923 until 1952, KA-BAR remained a legal trademark of Union Cutlery Company. However, in 1952 Union Cutlery renamed itself Ka-Bar Cutlery Inc. in order to capitalize on widespread public recognition of the name and trademark, which had by then become synonymous with the Mark 2 Combat Knife.
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