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A couple of things that I have noticed about the white spacers for this time frame (40's) is that the white spacers used were both medium and narrow on leather handled knives. In the photos that I have seen, for example the one you mentioned, pp 105 in Gaddis' book, the hunter has thin white spacers, and the example in Sheldons book pp 27 that example has medium white spacers, so there doesn't seem to be a standard for the spacers in that era.Some examples have both thin and medium in the same knife. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Also, you mentioned that the Heiser wide throat sheath came post war. I read that the riveted throats were discontinued sometime in 48-49. Was the wide throat discontinued around the same time?

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Sam,

I think if Bo could have secured spacers all the same thickness, he would have. If I follow that line of thinking he just wasn't able to for whatever reason(s). I've seen more variation during the war years and I attribute that to the fact that just about everything during the war years was harder to procure. The other variables are the time and effort the individual craftsman took to choose the same thickness spacers for each knife from the stock on hand and the general quality controls that the shop had in place at any given time. Again, I think you can make a general statement that spacer thickness consistancy improved as time went on.

I only have one soft data point for rivets phasing out and that is this 4-7:



Reportedly the original owner bought it right after he graduated from college in 1948. It is a "transition sheath" between rivets and no rivets: It still has rivets at the throat, but the large copper rivet holding the keeper has been replaced by the same small throat rivet and the keeper also goes through slots. I've seen only 3 or 4 of these and have one 3-7 sheath set up this way:



At the time of this transition the throats did narrow and they remained about the same through the very early 50's. By the mid 50's they got down to the narrowest they would ever be.



Best,