Unknown British Military Knife

[Greg]

Can anyone tell me what this is? Clearly a specialists knife but what???

[Kenny Andrew]

Very good question Greg to be honest I've never seen anything like it before even the KE on the war dept arrow is new to me. It looks like some sort of stripping tool or maybe paratroopers knife however the para knifes I've seen in the past had a rounded end so they wouldn't injure the user or maybe I'm thinking off a navy knife so it doesn't burst the dingy . I'll ask some of the British collectors who come in on Saturday there is a good chance one of them will know what it is.

[Dave]

 

It's great how this hobby keeps turning up new and unknown items.

 

I would guess it's a stripping tool. Seems to have a serial number on the handle too.

 

Dave

[Kenny Andrew]

That could be maker and serial number however I think it's more likely to be the owners name and army number as it seems to be stamped a little unevenly,mind you so is the WD stamp

[Dave]

 

Could KE be "Knife Electrical"

 

I hope you can find someone who can tell us what it is.

[Kenny Andrew]

I thought Electrical too because of the smaller notch which looks like it could be used for stripping wires, but would an electrician carry this about on a belt? maybe its Knife Engineer they would maybe carry an item like this on there belt especially if they were involved in setting up charges or bomb disposal.

[Greg]

Knives I have seen for Ordinance usually have a blasting cap crimper of some sort. Leatherman put one out a fw years ago with a crimp in the pliers and it was popular with engineers. I suppose the middle hald circle blade could be for this but I'm unsure.

 

My father is a master electrician and they always made their own tools but I have never seen a time he has needed anything but a regular utility razor knife for the job.

 

Here are other photos of it:

[Kenny Andrew]

OK so we have a real mystery here,

 

Russell who has been coming into my shop every Saturday since I opened the shop over 22 years ago and has almost every bit of British equipment you could imagine has never seen one before he too thinks its something to do with Electrical as the two notches are a good match for known cable sizes and the cutting edges are in the correct position for the cutting of wire.He is also an Electrician in the Royal Navy.

 

He has never come across the KE marking , he has seen OA and CF these are just codes and don't actually stand for anything so the KE may also just be a code.He's going to try to find out at least about the KE stamp then hopefully that will give us a better idea about the knife.

 

My gut feeling on this one through is if Russell doesn't know no one will! Lets see if he can come up with anything.

 

In the meantime anyone else got any ideas?