For good or bad, I am sort of known as the knife guy around the office.  There was a time when I was retailing (well, wholesaling) blades to my co-workers (cheap bastards).  Some of the more brazen still ask me for sharpening and other “warranty work.”  Because of my affiliation with things pointy, a colleague of mine gave me a neck knife.

He said the knife was languishing in his desk drawer and he thought I might appreciate having it.  Into my custody it went.  I pulled the little full-tang out of its sheath.  No markings or maker’s stamp.  “Who made it?” I asked.  My friend said the name escaped him at that moment.

The pattern was a mini-fighter having a drop point profile with an unsharpened swedge.  The edged portion of the blade measured about 2 1/2 inches.  My eye said the grind was convex.  Overall the knife was 6 5/8ths inches.  Simple OD green gutted paracord appeared in a single wrap on the handle, which also had a lanyard hole.

An unknown blade steel sized in at 3/32nd of an inch.  Some attempts at flexing the thin stock and passes on a stone confirmed it had a decent heat treat.  After sharpening, cardboard and paper cutting gave witness that the necker held a good edge.

A Kydex sheath, wearing blackened eyelets, fitted the knife perfectly.  The camouflage design on the Kydex was MARPAT, or U.S. Marine Corps Pattern.  For this taco sheath, the third eyelet placement provided the proper amount of tension at the sheath’s throat for retention of the steel.  Black ball chain gave the desired anti-garrote carrying method.

I got an email back from my buddy a couple of days later.  He said the knife was given to him by the maker, Paul Granger of Granger Knives and Pale Horse Fighters.  Comparing it to some Internet images, I found it was Granger’s Model 3b.

Since I was told that Mr. Granger had made a run of neck knives for a federal agency last year, this one may have been one of those models in “sterile” livery.  Well, I’d like to think so, anyway.  Judging from its condition, this Model 3b has been used, abused, and hopefully enjoyed.

by Wilson