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Hey Ron,
Nice hunter. Being new to this, I got a question. It appears to have a small Ricasso, which probably dates it to 44 or later. When Bo redesigned the hunter in '45 he incorporated a longer choil so that one could place a finger there. So would this knife date to sometime in '44 before he made the changes? Just a guess.

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Sam,

You can make a generalized statement that ricassos were smaller during the war years than post war, but you can't pin a knife down within the war years because of it's ricasso.

From my experience, the Hunter evolved into it's classic Model 3 features during the war and not suddenly post war! Early Hunters had a rudimentary choil, virtually no "hump" coming off the hilt, more of an upswept blade, a larger hilt and a handle that necked down very little. The knife I posted a photo of yesterday (which I put '44) and the photo in Gaddis' book on page 68 depict representative examples. By war's end Hunters had a conventional choil, a hump, less of an upsweep, a "normal" hilt and a necked down handle. Here are a few examples:




The one distinguishing feature between a WWII Hunter and a post war Model 3 is the former have a brass nut and washer and the latter a peened tang. If you look carefully at the leather handled field knives in Bo's new post war lineup on page 105 in Gaddis' book, you will see they all have a peened tang.

Note:

1. Model 3's made shortly after the war had a small stamp for a short period of time. Very shortly thereafter the 6" and 7" blade lengths went back to the large stamp. All WWII knives had a large stamp.

2. Brass nuts and washers were again used on some field knives in the early 50's. By this time the "blade flat" had gone away, so this is the "tell" that they are not WWII era.

3. Heiser sheaths for 6" Hunters made during the war had a narrow throat. Immediately post war Heiser sheaths for 5 1/2" and 6" blades had a wide throat. There were no differences in Heiser sheaths made for Hunter / Model 3 7" blades from mid '44 through mid '46.

Best

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A couple of things that I have noticed about the white spacers for this time frame (40's) is that the white spacers used were both medium and narrow on leather handled knives. In the photos that I have seen, for example the one you mentioned, pp 105 in Gaddis' book, the hunter has thin white spacers, and the example in Sheldons book pp 27 that example has medium white spacers, so there doesn't seem to be a standard for the spacers in that era.Some examples have both thin and medium in the same knife. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Also, you mentioned that the Heiser wide throat sheath came post war. I read that the riveted throats were discontinued sometime in 48-49. Was the wide throat discontinued around the same time?

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Sam,

I think if Bo could have secured spacers all the same thickness, he would have. If I follow that line of thinking he just wasn't able to for whatever reason(s). I've seen more variation during the war years and I attribute that to the fact that just about everything during the war years was harder to procure. The other variables are the time and effort the individual craftsman took to choose the same thickness spacers for each knife from the stock on hand and the general quality controls that the shop had in place at any given time. Again, I think you can make a general statement that spacer thickness consistancy improved as time went on.

I only have one soft data point for rivets phasing out and that is this 4-7:



Reportedly the original owner bought it right after he graduated from college in 1948. It is a "transition sheath" between rivets and no rivets: It still has rivets at the throat, but the large copper rivet holding the keeper has been replaced by the same small throat rivet and the keeper also goes through slots. I've seen only 3 or 4 of these and have one 3-7 sheath set up this way:



At the time of this transition the throats did narrow and they remained about the same through the very early 50's. By the mid 50's they got down to the narrowest they would ever be.



Best,