Overview
This knife started life as a WW1 LFC M1913 Cavalry Saber made in 1918 by Landers, Frary & Clark (LF&C). At some point, the blade was cut down into a fighter blade. The original sword probably broke in half, and the bottom half was used to fashion a new knife. The blade has a false top edge, its original fullers, and a clip point ground blade, .301" blade stock and 1.163" blade depth, hidden/frame tang construction. The handle has a fluted steel guard, steel collar, clear scales and an aluminum frame. Comes with a hand tooled brown leather sheath. Has some scratches and patina, otherwise good condition. Likely theatre made.
Here is some information on the original sword.
WW1 LFC M1913 Cavalry Saber made in 1918 by Landers, Frary & Clark (LF&C).
A scarce WW1 intact M1913 Cavalry Saber, typically referred to as the “Patton Sword” manufactured in 1918 by Landers, Frary & Clark (LF&C) in New Britain, Connecticut. The original M1913 Cavalry saber was developed by General Patton prior to WW1. The sword was a well-designed, excellent quality weapon at the time of its conception, but by the time the United States has actually entered WW1 the M1913 Saber was rendered useless by the advances in the modern warfare. There is a small chance that some of these Patton Swords saw the actual combat with the small detachment of the 15th Cavalry assigned as the protection detail for General Pershing in France, or with the 26th Cavalry Regiment (Philippine Scouts) during the 1941 Defense of the Philippines campaign. During the fighting retreat the 26th Cavalry engaged in the last cavalry charge in the history of the US Cavalry; it is entirely likely that the sabers were used during that charge but sadly no records or first-hand accounts survived the war.
In any event, the glory days of cavalry were over; after the Great War most of the M1913 sabers ended up collecting dust in the government arsenals. But the Second World War gave these old timers an unexpected new role in the modern warfare. During the first couple of years of WW2 the US servicemen had no standard-issue fighting knife and the military was desperately looking for a quick way to satisfy the demand for the much-needed fighting knives. Someone came up with the idea of re-purposing these old (and by than obsolete weapons anyway) into fighting knives and daggers. A huge quantity of M1913 Patton Swords were converted into somewhat crude, but very practical and effective fighting knives and trench daggers. Only a small portion of M1913 sabers survived WW2 intact, even fewer exist with the original-issue scabbard included – this is a great find, especially in such well-preserved original condition.