Posted 12 years ago
blunderbuss2
(199 items)
Can't seem to figure this one out. It is agreed to be original but all the 1's we can find have a knife incorporated or slight differences, such as the the upper grip which on this is a sharp point. Given to me by a French friend & kept it hanging on my parking brake handle till I took a good look at it & realized it wasn't a repro.. They were U.S. made & the co. markings are well known. They usually had a knife blade but have found some without it but the sharp tang doesn't match any others. Heavy brass & hell of a weapon.
Marked "U.S. 1918" & " L F C 1918". I now use it as a paper-weight & notice that I get a lot less disagreements.
This aint junk, its a trench knife handle from WWI! The ones I've seen all had pummels at the bottom though
I cannot tell you exactly what this item was, but now it is a serious set of brass knuckles......you could definitely put a hurting on someone with them ! lol. Talk to you later, Thrifty
Yeah Still--, and a blade at the other end. We have even speculated that maybe it was stolen by a worker before the blade was installed but the pommel doesn't appear ground off.
I think this was made to Knock someone out from behind with a Blow to the Head,or,Brass knuck someone from the front. A multi Fighting tool, if you will.
Bloody thing weighs 400 grams, just drop it on their head.
Yeah it actually had a blade, it was used for hand-to-hand fighting in the trenches, allegedly. As you know, they were widely reproduced because they're so #$@&ing cool. If you think about it, you could do worse damage to someone with this than a gun, deffinitely a hell of a weapon.
Still--, On the 8th day, God created 9 m/m. It has much better range although maybe not as much knock-down power.
Found orig.'s without blade but the didn't show that pointed spike but rounded more.
Well yeah a gun has better range, but you can pulverize a skull with that thing, even without a blade
Stil---, I don't discount the idea that it may be a repro.. Given to me by a French gun collector about 15 yrs ago. Have seen "knuckles" before but nothing that fits the hand so naturally. Sure looks old & looked just like this when he gave them to me. These just slip on your hand like a glove with no fingers.
If it's real then it was messed with a lot. It has been ground down and shaped quite a bit. I'm leaning towards fake since the lettering is wrong, or rather simply missing characters, which ma be the result of shoddy casting. Here is one for comparison.
http://www.baystatemilitaria.com/WWI/DSCN2846g.JPG
Doc, I agree with you mostly. I've obviously done more research & there are 1's that almost identically match this. You show the pristine example but if you look further, there were many variations. I have done a bit of research & found many variations. Some were exactly the same except the pointed piece.
If it is a repro., it is an old one as I've had this about 20 yrs. If it is, so be it & I would like to know. That would be nice but I'm still the meanest kid on the block.
No matter, if just fits in the hand like it belongs there.
I'm no expert on these, but I know enough about castings to know that it has all the trademarks of a "modern" production.
The sad part is that 20, 30, even 40 years is nothing to militaria these days. There are documented cases of WWII memorabilia being faked since almost the very beginning, no telling how early WWI reproductions started popping up. All I know is that there is VERY uneven, jagged lettering, which seems to be from a coarse mold. A rough cast would explain why it is so obviously ground down. I'm guessing the lettering went away during that process.
By the way, I'd love to get myself one of these one day, a whole one that is. Still cool to see it, dubious though it may be.
I know this item as I collect many knives (including tons of vintage switchblades from all over the world) This is the handle from a US military trench knife that was made by L.F.C. (Landers Frary & Clark) it did originally have a blade attached to it that would have measured just over 6" long. It also would have had a solid brass nut at the but of the handle that would have held the blade in place.
Based on the photographs you have posted, a few details would lead me to believe this is in deed a reproduction (re-pop) and NOT an original.
The first clue would be the knuckles themselves which should come to more of a sharp point on each knuckle. Yours seem to be more rounded or smooth, and from the looks of them, appear that they were not ever sharp to begin with (Meaning the sharp points have not been broken off or smoothed out at a later date)
The 2nd clue is the markings themselves. These markings should be engraved much deeper than they appear in the photos. The photos would indicate these markings were engraved much later than 1918 and appear to be machine aged.
I hope I was of some help to you and possibly solving your mystery. if nothing else, you have a fine set of brass knuckles or "Knuckle Dusters" that you can keep under your car seat in case of an emergency. (I have a collection of knuckles as well) Enjoy!
Either way, they fit & wear well.
Paper weight?? Yeah okay!!! It looks more like some hand to hand combat tool to me.. And that's exactly what it is All though I think it's missing the knife on one of the ends More then likely it broke off in Battle.. ;)
Oh and another thing is there are to many imperfection's Witch lead me to believe it is from 1918 No Question about it.
I know that these brass knuckles were posted 3 years ago...... Do you still have them??? They're COOL! :)
The local cops used to come to our metal shop now and again to have us cut up brass knuckles they confiscated. It was a tough thing to do for us metal guys, and I've seen some nice examples turn into parts and pieces.
Only illegal in some states I just googled. A big no no in Canada.
Still have them Nevada & they still get comments. Use them a a paperweight. I figure it's less threatening than using my Browning for a paperweight.
Is that a Browning firearm or a Browning knife??? [;>)
I think you know Nevada. Do Browning knives come in 9 m/m ?
YIKES!!! :)
Reminds me of my 4th grade teacher, Mr. Hallub, who used a big ol' sledgehammer for a paperweight on his desk. Kept it upright so we could all see it in plain view ~ had the best behaved class in school!!! :)
Doubt he had any trouble & I don't either.
My middle school teacher kept a Mossberg 12 gauge shotgun on her desk
LOL, Still !! Let me guess . Your school was on Jefferson St. in Detroit ? LMAO !!!