Description
This is a pilot's survival knife fitted with two blades, a 4 5/8" 1095 steel locking knife blade with a Rockwell hardness rating of HRC 53-57 and a 5" cold rolled saw blade with 15% tungsten content. The blades are parkerized in black and the handle is Bakelite. A lot of 3,000 test samples was delivered to the Army Air Forces in 1943 and the knife was ordered in 1944 from the Colonial Cutlery Company of Providence, R.I., with part number 44D5150 and description "KNIFE,FOLDING,HUNTING," though neither was marked on the knife. A total of 150,000 were delivered between 1944 and 1945. The knife was designed to fit into a pocket of the C-1 survival vest and was ordered in numbers commensurate to the number of vests ordered.
A sample was delivered to the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics around January, 1944. BUAER ordered 100,000 units of this knife on February 28, 1945, as contract number NX-sa 94964 and stock number R41-K-465, with a bail for a lanyard placed on the saw end of the handle. The Navy required the bail on all survival items to allow them to be lashed to a raft. The knife was delivered to the Navy in an olive drab canvas carry case marked "U.S.N." that was designed to to be fitted onto the belt. The Navy offered the knife as optional kit for the pilot.
The knife was colloquially known amongst aircrew as the "Giant Jackknife," probably because its commercial name was "The Jiant Jackknife." A second manufacturer, United Machine Tool Company, was also contracted to create these knives but their product was generally considered inferior to the original. The Giant Jackknife was replaced with a solid blade knife in 1966.
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