Soft Rubber M3 Fighting Knives

OK

both packages were last tracked entering UK customs in Manchester yesterday evening.... I think I should receive them tomorrow.

For those who are going to Casino, Dean (lipton) will be bringing yours

For those who are coming to Dragoon and dont mind waiting until then, I'll bring yours then.

For everyone else, I shall post them out so will need addresses.

Cheers for being patient everyone!

M

PM'd address.

I'll grab mine at cassino if I can mate, But i wont get there till sunday morning, many thanks

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Could you have mine posted? Do you need my address again?

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I have had confirmation that they are waiting for customs charges to be paid before they release them. I can go and pay this tomorrow morning, so that Dean can take the folk at Casino's to them. Bugger is, is that the charge is £108! Yith and I have worked it out to be just over the VAT on the total order. I have worked out the extra to be £3.60 per knife. If people could arrange for the extra to be sent across that would help me a lot. This can be given to dean upon handing over of knife at Casino for ease.

No problem mate, will hand it to Dean on Sunday as I'm away till then.

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Paypalled you the extra £3.60 for the bribe, er I mean "customs" charge. lol

Yup, i'll pay Dean at Cassino then, cheers!

Arseholes & Excise Charge of £.60 eh...do you want it now Webby? Or at Dragoon when I pick it up?

Paypalled with the payment for the cu*tstoms charge, cheers

I'll pay dean tomorrow then.

Cheers

Ranj

whenever you see me is fine/or dean this weekend.

Theyre all excellent, I'm very impressed.

The Garand bayonet goes on my M1, perhaps could do with a bit more friction, but easily sorted.

The quality of the M3 knife is top notch, the M1918 and K98 bayonet are also very good quality

Rather than fill up Webby's sale thread, I thought I'd post in here to discuss the painting, or not of these knives. I was thinking of leaving mine black, at least untill I've had a good look at them and see what will actually stick. For my part with the 1918, there's no point in painting up a lovely set of brass knuckles if it's going to flake off in 6 weeks.

But then you're carrying a black rubber knife I'm sorry, don't see the point in leaving it black, I thought the point of them was to provide a realistic looking knife which is also safe. Realistic...not black and rubbery looking.

I think the main purpose was to replace nasty sharp things which a lot of people aren't comfortable being around.

Saying that, I have just painted the handle of my m3 brown (enamel paints) and the paint has taken well. Might tickle the edges of the blade with a bit of silver, but I'm not really too bothered about it being mostly black

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Happy to paint it to match the real ting as near as I can get, but only if it stays on. If it were real and in the trenches, would you be trying to dull down the finish, so that the glimmer of brass and steel dont give you away? Or would it be a case of what the hell They know I'm here now so stealth is out of the window? I only ask as I dont know what is correct for the period.
Thanks for any advice

Dull brass handle with a dull steel blade.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_I_trench_knife

I'm new to all the detailed info on ww2 gear and with American gear I know even less, so I try to look things up a bit more and I'm well aware that Wiki isn't the most accurate reference in the world but this article seems to give good enough reason for not painting the trench knife at all. If they went to all the effort of blueing and chemically darkening the brass, then it was intended as a stealthy weapon, ergo, leave it black.

Not to be too blunt but it wasn't a stealthy weapon at all, it was a reissued knife on the end of a set of knuckle dusters, used originally for a hand to hand weapon when clearing trenches...in WW1. They weren't chemically blued or chemically dulled, they were brass and they were dull, although it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to have the blade blacked out.

The handle was actually made of cast bronze, which used a conical steel nut to hold the blade in. The Mark I's blade was blackened with a gun blue type finish, the bronze handle was chemically blackened, with spikes formed on each knuckle bow.

I don't know where their information came from but all examples, including the real one I held, have had a brass handle and steel blade.

I'm not going to tell you how to paint your own one, you can paint it bright purple of needs be, but they were brass handled with a dull steel or black (if ya like) blade.

I've found a primer called Zinsser, They do a range of water based primers which allow quick drying formulations for most substrates including plastic, I've brought a tin to sort out a problem ceiling I've got to deal with and when I get it I'll have a go at priming the plastic to see what sticks. Wil post up pics and results as I get them.
Thanks for the advice so far.