This gentleman spoke with me, and this was done at the shop, whether reduced at a later date I couldn't tell. However, the thumb notches are RMK's for sure...

I did not say that this was Vietnam era, I did say that the knife was made mid 70's and suggested that the men of this forum could give him a better idea of the value because we (@RMK) can only give replacement (catalog) value for insurance purposes...

Thank you Scott, for another piece of the puzzle.

Scott,

Are thumb notches usually added before or after heat treat or doesn't it matter? If before heat treat, does that mean that this knife was most likely custom ordered with a single hilt?

Loooong after...

If I was to offer an opinion, I would say that the hilt was not shortened till a later date...just looked very ...awkward"...

By the way, I believe the gentleman told me he used this knife while deployed for Vietnam...maybe he'll chime in again with the rest of his story...

So, the knife probably started as a standard build, then at some point, the top hilt was reduced either by the shop or privately and the thumb notches were added by the shop most likely at a later date.