Is this Knife old? What type of metal?

[Scorpio_queen6]

HI! I recently found this knife, along with some old bottles, dampers, forks, shotgun shells, etc. The knife is really heavy for its size. I was able to polish up the metal blade easily with some steel wool. The handle is very solid. Cant tell if it is stone or some type of metal that has been pitted over time. The blade is magnetic but the handle is not. I am not sure if it is an old hunting knife or kitchen knife. Cant seem to find anything similar to it online. Please let me know if you have any ideas on the type of knife and possible age of the knife.

Thanks!

 

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[ARC]

Well its an odd one... but not that old IMO. looks like kitchen knife of some sort.

 

[smallfoot]

Although I'm not sure it would be specific to the plant nursery industry, I had one given to me by a nurseryman years ago. It was a stainless blade with aluminum handle. Those materials would withstand some time buried but the one you found is in pretty good shape even if made from those so I"d suspect it wasn't underground very long. Aluminum and stainless steel will both still degrade and corrode but at slower rates than carbon steel. He told me they used them because of all the nitrates they worked around and they held up fairly well.

 

[metrotec]

paring knife

 

[GeoW]

HI! I recently found this knife, along with some old bottles, dampers, forks, shotgun shells, etc. The knife is really heavy for its size. I was able to polish up the metal blade easily with some steel wool. The handle is very solid. Cant tell if it is stone or some type of metal that has been pitted over time. The blade is magnetic but the handle is not. I am not sure if it is an old hunting knife or kitchen knife. Cant seem to find anything similar to it online. Please let me know if you have any ideas on the type of knife and possible age of the knife.

Thanks!

Looks like the knife that was issued with the US Army mess kit of WW1.

 

[smallfoot]

Looks like the knife that was issued with the US Army mess kit of WW1.

I thought about the mess kit knife too but couldn't see a stamping on the op knife. Those were pretty deep marks that I thought should show up...

 

[RussFed]

Could be a clamming knife for shucking clams.

 

[Riverbum]

Obviously Military Issue but I've never seen one like that for mess kits, and yet I can't figure out what else it could be from. "1917" says a lot about it.

 

[GeoW]

Obviously Military Issue but I've never seen one like that for mess kits, and yet I can't figure out what else it could be from. "1917" says a lot about it.

 

[Scorpio_queen6]

Oh wow!! I have to look more closely and see if I can find any markings! Thank you so much!