39 year old smatchet
 

Found this old hunk of steel.

Interesting copy. Do you have more pics and provenance?

The Fairbairn Smatchet was rather plain. The hilt was flat with a large butt.

This site is selling a modern replication, for comparison.

http://www.macdonaldarms.com/armoury...rnSmatchet.php

an original pic

Verified by Bill. I'm the current owner as of yesterday. Not sure of the prototypes that may have preceeded this one. Will try to remember to come back and post a few more photos.

Very cool,, and yes, we need the story and more pictures :]

A few more

Very nice. Where did you find it?

Ebay of all places for something like this. This is the second I've seen in the last four months or so. The other if I remember right was #13.

A little more information, many here may already be aware.
There are Two different grind styles on the production AF smatchets.

Style #1 is shown above on #001 (January 9, 1980) where the grinds meet at the center of the blade. This style is used on the production smatchets made by Boker currently.
Style #2 is shown on #002 (trying to find date) which was sold as part of Rex Applegate's estate and is shown in the "Devine" catalog of his estate sale. This style has a more consistent width grind meeting at the point leaving flats at the center of either side of the blade. This grind style has been used on the Wells Creek run made by Buck, Al Mar production smatchets, and Boker Mini Smatchets.


Per public posts by Bill this knife would have predated his personally built grinder by 4 years. His grind was built in 1984. I'm not sure what he was grinding with prior to building his own.

I also was able to contact the owner of #002 who has owned it from 2002. He purchased it from the man who purchased it from Col. Applegate's estate. He says there is no date that he's aware of engraved on #002.

#013 appears to be also undated has a tapered tang and #1 grind. This one recently popped up on eBay.

#027 was made in 1995 and has a smaller edge bevel with a #001 type grind. It also added the indicator hole that was requested by Applegate to allow the user to more readily reference which edge they were using.

Info gathered from fightingkmive.Info and Fairbairnsykesfightingknives.com.

Not sure if it's possible to edit the thread title, but after a note from the maker the date could not have been 1980 and is likely 1988 or 1986. There is a squiggle over the second circle.

Too bad NDD isn't around to see this . . .

FYI Update-There is one of the "Wells Creek Gun and Knife Works" smatchets on ebay right now. As mentioned these were made by Buck Knives for Mr. Applegate. Out of my current budget range right now, but cool piece of history.

The smatchet in the hands of Pyreaux is the very first one I produced at the direction of Col. Rex Applegate for him.
I hadn't held that one in a long time until Pyreaux hand carried it to Blade Show in Atlanta this year.

The date is either 1986 of 1988.

Al Mar introduced me to Col. Rex Applegate in 1984 the same year I moved to this location.

I was given leeway to try and make the handle a bit more user friendly.
I also hand built all the prototypes used for further production of the Applegate Smatchet.

They look like bloated Philippine Bolo knives.

Another photo.