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Hey Ron,
Nice hunter. Being new to this, I got a question. It appears to have a small Ricasso, which probably dates it to 44 or later. When Bo redesigned the hunter in '45 he incorporated a longer choil so that one could place a finger there. So would this knife date to sometime in '44 before he made the changes? Just a guess.

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Sam,

You can make a generalized statement that ricassos were smaller during the war years than post war, but you can't pin a knife down within the war years because of it's ricasso.

From my experience, the Hunter evolved into it's classic Model 3 features during the war and not suddenly post war! Early Hunters had a rudimentary choil, virtually no "hump" coming off the hilt, more of an upswept blade, a larger hilt and a handle that necked down very little. The knife I posted a photo of yesterday (which I put '44) and the photo in Gaddis' book on page 68 depict representative examples. By war's end Hunters had a conventional choil, a hump, less of an upsweep, a "normal" hilt and a necked down handle. Here are a few examples:




The one distinguishing feature between a WWII Hunter and a post war Model 3 is the former have a brass nut and washer and the latter a peened tang. If you look carefully at the leather handled field knives in Bo's new post war lineup on page 105 in Gaddis' book, you will see they all have a peened tang.

Note:

1. Model 3's made shortly after the war had a small stamp for a short period of time. Very shortly thereafter the 6" and 7" blade lengths went back to the large stamp. All WWII knives had a large stamp.

2. Brass nuts and washers were again used on some field knives in the early 50's. By this time the "blade flat" had gone away, so this is the "tell" that they are not WWII era.

3. Heiser sheaths for 6" Hunters made during the war had a narrow throat. Immediately post war Heiser sheaths for 5 1/2" and 6" blades had a wide throat. There were no differences in Heiser sheaths made for Hunter / Model 3 7" blades from mid '44 through mid '46.

Best