Ek Commando Knife Co. - Construction

Construction

World War 2 in the United States was a time of steel shortages as it was a scarce strategic material. The U.S. Government War Production Board tested and approved the designs of John Ek's knives and authorized continued availability of the nickel-chrome-moly steel which he used. Subsequently, he was admitted to the Army Ordnance Association.

Ek found the nickel-chrome-moly steel to be strong, yet stain and rust resistant. In later years Ek would use Swedish Sandvik stainless steel, upon request. In April or May 1939 John Ek designed the first John Ek Commando Knife which he named the Model No. 1 and that was the only model that he planned to make. The Model No. 1 had a single-edged blade of spearpoint design, with a sharpened false edge extending approximately three inches along the back edge of the blade.

Ek later developed a double-edged version of this named the Model No. 2. He added crossguards to these versions, designating them the Model No. 6 and No. 7 respectively (today these are referred to as the No. 3 and No. 4).

Several aspects of Ek's design made the knives distinct and rugged. The knife was made with a full-width, full-length tang (the extension of the blade which runs through the grips) construction. Not only did the tang run the entire length of the grips, but the tang was the full width of the grips. Most knives of the day (even ones made today) had narrow "rat-tail" tangs, many running only one-third the length of the grip. Ek believed his full tang design made the knife inherently stronger.

Ek's knives featured an extended butt, a direct extension of the blade and the blade tang itself protruding beyond the end of the handle slabs anywhere from nearly 1/2 " to 1". This allowed the butt end of the knife to be used as a pry bar for opening ammunition crates or, according to Ek's 1944 manual, Your Silent Partner, for "an upstroke to lay your opponent out." Another use of this extension was to protect both the hand and the wooden grips when the butt was used as a hammer. The extended butt of the Ek Commando Knife may have inspired the design of the "skullcrusher" pommel on the First Special Service Force V-42 Stiletto, which appeared in 1943.

Ek preferred wood grips to leather, as the leather was prone to rot under tropical conditions. He found the rock maple grips he chose to be more comfortable and to provide a better grip, especially when the hand was wet with perspiration, than the brass/alloy grips of the British Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife. The wood grips allowed the owner to custom fit the grip, by sanding, to the exact contour of his hand. For a number of years, Ek included a piece of sandpaper with each knife for this purpose.

Ek preferred his knives without crossguards for ease of concealment and for quick withdrawal as there was no crossguard to snag on clothing or a soldier's equipment. The grips on Ek's knives had eight scalloped groves:four on each of two grips. This gave the user such a good grip that John Ek found that a crossguard was not necessary to prevent the hand from sliding onto the blade. When questioned about this by the War Production Board, Ek greased his hand and plunged one of his knives into the wooden floor with such force that no one was able to pull it out.

The "Poured-Lead" Rivets which were used to affix the two wooden grips to the blade tang were unique to Ek Knives. Most knives at the time used standard cutlery rivets or pins, or they were simply driven onto the rat-tail tang. The Poured-Lead Rivets had the advantage that, if the grips ever became loose, they could be tightened in the field without any tools. All the owner needed to do was take a heavy object, such as a rock, and pound the lead rivets to tighten them. Another advantage of the Poured-Lead Rivets was the extra weight which made the knife balance far better than most, as it added weight to the hilt. This caused it to fall into the hand, rather than fall out of the hand.