Specifications
The U.S. Marine Raider stiletto was similar to the Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife. Both were designed hilt heavy, to lie in the hand, to prevent dropping the stiletto. Both had a tapered, double-edge blade with stiletto sharp tip and diamond shaped cross section, sharpened on both cutting edges all the way to the oval crossguard. They both had a slender symmetrical grip of "Coca-Cola bottle" shape and both weighed the same 1.5 pounds (0.68 kg).
The primary difference was that the U.S. Marine Raider stiletto hilt was a one-piece construction, die-cast directly onto the blade tang, which is the extension of the blade shoulder, concealed by the knife grip.
The stiletto hilt was die cast using zinc aluminium alloy, which exhibited the desirable characteristics of sharp casting, low shrinkage, low cost and above all, minimal use of strategic war-priority metals. However, over time it was discovered that the zinc ions in this alloy have a tendency to leach out, leaving the casting extremely brittle. As a result more than half of the few Raider stilettos still in existence today have very fine hilt cracks or entire portions of the hilt missing with pieces having simply flaked off; many more have replacement handles. This decay can be delayed to some extent by coating the hilt with petroleum jelly.
The stiletto blade was approximately 0.25 inches (0.64 cm) longer than the Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife and considerably thinner. It is believed that thinner design was a manufacturing compromise, rather than an attempt to increase the effectiveness of the blade.
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