Cattaraugus 225Q Commando Knife

Above is the Cattaraugus 225Q Commando Knife my Uncle Bob recently gave me to add to my collection of vintage military knives.

At the start of World War Two it is a known fact that the U.S. forces were woefully under prepared to wage a war on this large of a scale. In fact a war this large had never been fought before or for that fact ever since. Many new ventures would be engaged in to meet the production demands of such a large force. Knives were but one aspect of the new style war to be fought. It became immediately known that the U.S. forces were short of cutlery of all types. To meet this demand it was decided to use whatever style could be put into immediate production. Cattaraugus had a "Quartermaster-style" blade design ready to go.

The Cattaraugus 225Q knives were about the most robust knives ever made for the military. The myth about opening crates could actually have some truth to it; these knives are capable of doing it. And the thick pommels are more then capable of driving nails although a tent peg is much more likely to be struck by the butt. The Cattaraugus consists of a 1095 steel blade that is 6 inches in length with the knife having an overall length of 10 3/8 inches. The typical Cattaraugus knife has a smooth leather handle roughed up in the center section with gouges to the leather for a sure grip. The cutting tool intentionally applied the gouges; it is not a mistake.

The knife has a heavy six-inch long flat-ground, offset spearpoint polished blade with a one third false edge, stacked leather washers handle, and a three-piece pommel made of metal plates riveted together. These knives are marked "Cattaraugus 225Q." Knives with the identical blade pattern made by Case are marked "337-6"-Q." The blade pattern is made of flat stock with a three quarter fuller. This is a copy of the well-known Marble’s Ideal pattern which has been around for almost a hundred years now.

Similar six-inch blade hunting knives with clip point blades were made by Pal, Kutmaster, Ka-Bar, and Queen City. Ka-Bar stated in a flyer that this knife was their six inch commando "produced during World War II for the Armed Services."

How I Spent My Christmas Eve

MDM got a phone call at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve. It wasn't an elf wanting to know where to deliver my new Jeep Wrangler. It was another elf who said she was broke down in West Covina and her car was on fire! Sixty miles from home.
So MDM threw his tools in the truck and headed down the hill with the Mom. Found the elf at a Shell gas station eating pizza. Gangsters kept driving by her black 1999 Mercury Cougar giving us the eye. I got chewed out by the elf for giving them the eye back.
Turns out the elf's car lost it's water pump belt and it got hot under the hood sort to speak. By this time it was after 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve and nothing was open except the guy on the corner selling little plastic bags. Things did not look good. But then, at the last moment, a light shown in the east and MDM had an epiphany! Make your own belt!
MDM gathered up string and wire and grass and twigs and made a band that looked just like a bungee cord with the hooks cut off. It worked perfectly! We kept the rpm's below 2000 and hit the interstate. Max speed - 45 mph. We got the elf home at 10 p.m. and she promptly jumped in MDM's truck and drove off to the elves' Christmas party with her elfin boyfriend.
MDM hit the Jack and took the Mom to bed.

Merry Christmas!

The Squirrel Rifle

I was back home in Illinois the other day and thought about something I had read in The Wild West magazine. It was a story about a Winchester Model 1903 .22 Cal. Automatic Rifle that Buffalo Bill Cody had presented to the young son of one of the managers of his Wild West Show. Seems Buffalo Bill really liked the boy and even had the rifle engraved, "Presented to young son of so and so by Buffalo Bill Cody". The rifle recently sold at auction for $17,100!

Well, it so happens that my father had the exact same rifle. He used to hunt squirrels with it. Rockin' Randall has it now safely locked in a gun case. When I was home I told the story about the Buffalo Bill rifle and the big price tag. We laughed that dad's doesn't have the inscription and isn't worth the 17 G's. But I have found that it's worth between $850 and $1,250 dollars! Not bad for a .22 caliber rifle that they stopped making in 1932.

As I took the rifle from the gun case and looked at it RR says, "It doesn't shoot." I said, "What do you mean?" He said that David had borrowed it to run a raccoon out of the attic of his house and it wouldn't shoot. Had to bring it back and get a shotgun to dispatch the critter. I said it might be dirty from all the years of standing around.

When I got back to California I got to thinking. The only time I had ever shot the rifle was at least 30 years ago and I remember that I couldn't get it to shoot either. I took it apart and found that it was very dirty. Full of years of powder discharges and wax from shell casings. I cleaned it up and bought a box of CCI Stingers (the cool thing to shoot at the time). The rifle jammed about every third shot. I didn't want to be blamed for messing up the squirrel rifle so I put it back in the gun case and never shot it again. Dad soon after bought a brand new Marlin Model 94 .22 Cal. squirrel rifle with a four-power scope. He never did say why.

I decided to research the rifle to find out how much it was worth. As mentioned above, I found that out and much more. I got on a chat site about the Model 1903 and everyone was complaining that the rifle didn't shoot well, that it always jammed, and that it just wasn't a very good rifle. Then the guy with the knowledge got on line. Seems Winchester made their own special .22 caliber ammunition for the Model 1903 and manufactured it from 1903 to 1932 when they stopped making the rifle. They called it Winchester .22 Cal. Automatic. Not .22 Short, not .22 Long, not .22 Long Rifle, Winchester .22 Cal. Automatic! They have antique boxes of 'em for sale on the internet for $325 per box. Only two companies still make it and they are very pricey. You can get them at Old Western Scounger at $12.95 for a box of 50. That's $0.26 a shot! No wonder it never would shoot worth a darn!

Happy Thanksgiving

MDM: Master Bowyer Part 3

Well, other than a leather wrap on the handle, I have finished my selfbow. It ended up being a 60# draw weight at 28" of draw. I am very happy it didn't turn out to be a 30# bow! It doesn't take much extra scraping off the belly to end up will a 30#'er. That's why I worked so slowly.

I started sanding it with 80 grit sandpaper and progressed all the way to 400 grit. Then I used #5/0 steel wool and finally "boned" it with a small glass vial. It's as hard as polished bone dried in the Sahara for 40 years! I put six coats of boiled linseed oil on it and finished with two coats of paste wax.

Finally, I hand-made a Flemish bowstring with 14 strands of Brownell B50 bow string material. I served the ends and center with diamond-braided serving thread that was 0.022" diameter.

I shot the bow yesterday for the first time. It shoots well. Minimal hand shock (means I did a pretty good job on the tillering), fast and straight. Got to get used to shooting a bow with no sights on it. It's not that easy!

By the way. I'm taking donations of leather!


The unfinished bow during tiller using a long string.

I signed the bow on the belly of the lower limb. 60# at 28"!

The finished bow shown at full draw with its new Flemish string.

Finished bow at full brace.

MDM: Master Bowyer Part Deux

MDM's bow is coming along. Here it is at 18" draw and 50# pull. Only ten inches to go to get to a 28" draw @ 50#. Now all the belly fat is coming off with a sharp knife...very slowly. So far I got a pretty good symmetric curve going. Hope to keep it that way!

Luci the Wonder Dog

Luci is on top of the Cedar Springs Dam on the north side of Silverwood Lake in Hesperia, CA. We went there for a walk early Saturday morning. On the far side of the dam there are small cliffs that drop straight into the lake. Luci, who does not normally even like the water, jumped into ten feet deep water well below me and where I could not easily get to her. To my amazement she swam, like a dog, to the sandstone rocks and got out! She said she liked it and started to try it again until I convinced her otherwise.