Over the years and the decades, certain knives have come to be associated with Special Forces. Unlike the SEALS, we haven’t endorsed thirty different Rambo knives and toad-stabbers, and we’ve never associated with anything as impractical and, well, ugly as the Buckmaster. But hey, the frogs are alright, you gotta love them for what they are, cause they ain’t gonna change. Anyway, as people who know where to find wine that doesn’t have a screw-on top, and speak a foreign language other than Loud Slow English, you’d expect us to have a little more class. We do, and it shows up in our choice of cuttin’ irons. We’ll take them in rough chronological order.

The V-42 Commando Stiletto

Case V-42 1992 Reissue. Image: Knife Collectors.org.

This weapon, made by Case Knives, was issued to the SF forerunner The First Special Service Force, a unique Canadian-American combined unit. It shows up on the crests of many SF-related units today. While all SF men are still trained to fight with knives, daggers like this are very rare, with multipurpose blades having replaced them. The V-42 was an update on the double-edged British Fairbairn-Sykes fighting or Commando knife, with some subtle human engineering and quality improvements. It had a spiked pommel, a leather-disc handle like a contemporary bayonet, and a serrated place to plant the thumb for a couple of the knife strikes that were in the Fairbairn-Sykes bag of tricks. It was a fighting knife, a killing knife; it was also a beautiful work of industrial art. An original V-42 is worth a small fortune today, and even one of a short run of numbered copies Case made in the 1980s and 90s (photo) has appreciated enormously.  But there’s a decent Chinese copy available.

The Randall Knife

From the top: Randall #1, #15, #14. Bottom one most common in SF. Image: Randall Made Knives catalog.

Starting in Vietnam, or maybe even earlier, SF gear included a near-compulsory Randall knife, Rolex watch, and star sapphire ring. The knives are less beloved today, but they’re still handcrafted by the Randall shop in Orlando, and they’re still damn good knives. These days, they tend to be utterly wasted on the collectors who lock them in safes or glass display cabinets. With a Randall, you could cut just about anything that needed cutting, including (in one well-known case) through the skin of a burning helicopter wreck to safety. Randall Made knives take and hold an edge (especially the carbon steel blades). They are as vital a piece of SF history as the green beret itself. Particularly “SF” models are the No. 1 and No. 14 “Attack” (illustrated) and 15 in 5 1/2″ and 7 1/2″ blade lengths. Some do swear by the tubular-hilted No. 18, wrapping the hilt in “550” cord. The knives are built like a bank vault. No Chinese copy of one could do it justice, we fear. A Model 14 is $385 from Randall, plus options; plus a long wait (From the website: “Current order deliveries are being scheduled for delivery in 56 MONTHS, year 2016.” If you need one now, dealers can help you but expect to pay nearly double the price — seriously. If you want a used one with “character,” good luck — SF-used Randalls are much more pricey, and almost all new Randalls are locked up by collectors and never even put in the sheath. Pity that.

The Gerber Mark II

SF/SOG legend Jerry “Mad Dog” Shriver (MIA-PFD.RIP) with Gerber MkII and suppressed Grease Gun at Mission Launch Site. Image: MilitaryCarryKnives.com.

This knife was another staple of Vietnam operators. It was a 1966 update of the classic fighting dagger, and so it fell into disuse — and all but out of Gerber’s catalog — in the 1980s. It’s back in production now; in case you have one, a serial-number history of the first 35 years of so of production is here, and a comprehensive history of the Mk II is at Military Carry Knves.com.

The thing with daggers is, they’re highly-evolved fighting knives, but 99% of the time you need a knife, you’re cutting cardboard, parachute cord, webbing, or dressing an animal. All can be done with a double-edged knife optimized for cutting human throats, hamstrings and livers, but it’s awkward. That leads the dagger-wearer to carry two knives, and if there’s one thing an SF guy already has and doesn’t need more of, it’s weight to carry. That said, the wasp-waisted, elegant Gerber was a remarkably beautiful design, even in its odd first-generation model with the blade and hilt set at a 5-degree angle for more comfortable waist carry. Apocryphal stories claimed a number of buyers indignantly returned “bent” knives, and Roy Gerber soon threw in the towel and made them straight (an anniversary model once reprised the bend for collectors). Mark IIs can be found with and without sawteeth on the wasp-waist. Ask a late 1960s-1980s SF vet, he’ll have a Gerber story. (He may still have the knife in a closet).

The Yarborough Knife

Yarborough Knife. Issued to SF graduates since 2002, available to earlier graduates. This was the first. Image: Anne Reeve via USASOC.

In 2002, Special Forces senior leaders decided that a specific SF knife needed to be issued once again. After considering over 100 entries (including, we are told, Randalls), Special Forces Command selected a Bill Harsey design, to be manufactured by Chris Reeve, and called it the “Yarborough Knife” after the SF General who started with the Airborne Test Platoon in 1941 and was instrumental in winning approval for the Green Beret from President Kennedy in 1961. Reeve and Harsey sell a generic version of the knife, but a “Yarborough” marked knife is only available one way — earn Special Forces qualification. Every knife’s serial number is recorded along with the name of its owner at Special Forces Command and/or the Special Forces Branch Museum.

While the knife has been presented to every SFQC graduate since August 23, 2002, the taxpayers aren’t the ones paying for them in the end — the SF candidates who sweated to earn them in the first place, reimburse the Government for the knife, and it becomes their personal property — with one limitation. SF soldiers, and their heirs, are not permitted to sell the Yarborough Knife, and a private citizen who is in possession of one may be prosecuted for theft or receiving stolen property. If the cops find him before the SF mafia does.

A soldier who qualified before August 23 may also obtain a Yarborough, although the process is more involved and the Command has to check him out and establish his bona fides. If you’re SF and want one, go here. If you need more help, drop us a line in the comments. Here are two ProfessionalSoldiers.com threads on the knife: Symbol of a Legacy and . Designer Bill Harsey is a member there and comments.

Most SF men store their Yarborough away, which is a pity as it is an extremely strong, practical field knife. We know of at least one soldier who has beaten his like a gong on multiple combat tours, and it’s still going strong. And honest, it has nothing to do with him being one finger short. We know of another who inadvertently plunged it into his thigh, and it penetrated all the way to the bone. The knife was so sharp (from the factory!) that the wound was near painless and healed with a very faint scar… but it let out over a pint of blood before he got the bleeding under control.

So today, in 2012, the Yarborough is the definitive Special Forces knife, but each of the others has a very special place in SF history. Also, because a knife is a personal item, you’ll find plenty of guys who like a Ka-Bar, a Glock knife (it’s like a mini Ka-Bar), an AK bayonet or some other piece of exotica. We tried some oddball knives over the years, with mixed results. And there are a lot of guys who don’t use a sheath knife at all, preferring to use a multi-tool. There’s something wrong with those boys. A sheath knife is needed if only for style points. Ideally, a V-42, Randall, Mark II, or Yarborough.

This entry was posted in Unconventional Weapons, Weapons that Made their Mark on by Hognose.

About Hognose

Former Special Forces 11B2S, later 18B, weapons man. (Also served in intelligence and operations jobs in SF).

6 thoughts on “Legendary Knives of SF

Medic09

Great post about great steel.

I’ve got a Gerber in the closet. Had a friend purchase it for me in the US around ’79 or ’80. We had a falling out when he got back to Israel, because he didn’t want to part with the knife! You’re right that it is a bit awkward as a field tool; but for an affordable commercial product, it was a very nice knife. Light and fairly unobtrusive. I don’t know what I would have done with it in a desperate moment as I don’t know a thing about knife fighting. But it hung on my combat vest as a desperate backup, along with my S & W model 39 (at least I knew how to use that). My Gerber was ruined when I gave to a knife shop guy in Jerusalem to refurbish it. He put it on a grinder! Lesson learned…

Hognose Post author

Somehow one never thinks of Jerusalem as a centre of edged weaponry. Damascus, once upon a time. You can try sending your Gerber back to Gerber and see if they will have a go at fixing it. Randall does (their knives have a lifetime guarantee to original owners, but a second owner or someone who has abused the knife must pay for the work).

Just realized that the story may not have included the link for former SF guys to get a Yarborough… if anybody needs it drop a line here and we’ll contact you backchannel.

Torres

Good stuff about the Randalls. As most 80’s era guys, I have a Model 18 with the handle wrapped in fishing line, snare wire, and 550 cord. Everything is still in the compartment the I left it when I last carried it to the field.

I also have a virgin Model 14 which is too pretty to use!

Morgan Lewis

I have always been a fan of the blade, from childhood. I’ve got a copy of the V-42. Originals go for well over $10,000.00, a bit too rich for my bank account. I remember drooling over the real Gerber Mk II they sold in the SF Book Store, back in ’68. Never had the money to splurge on one. I got one of the new ones, but it ain’t the same.

I did swing by Bragg a few years ago and picked up my Yarborough Knife, ser # 0813 and signed the official book, registering it. I have a classic Randall Model 14, with a Model 2 on order, estimated delivery around Oct 2016… Gives me a reason to live.

Scalar

Great article about Randall Knives. Not many people realize how high quality these knives are. Regarding Jerusalem and Israel, when the Lord Jesus Christ returns Israel and Jerusalem will be the center of all things including steel and science knowledge, and we will have forms of steel that are incredible and almost magical and science fictional in their properties.

Norm McCrary

I have two images of a dagger my father brought back from WWII which I would like to show you to see if you’ve ever seen anything like them. Dad served in the OSS. I am not sure whether this weapon was issued to him, picked-up on the battlefield or, perhaps, purchased after the war. Dad left no papers or comments regarding it.

Could you please supply an address for me to send these?

Thank you in advance.

Norm McCrary

Norm McCrary