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Ka-Bar, legendary knife of the Marines battle proven during WWII and still a pretty strong favorite of survivalists and soldiers alike these days. No doubt you’ve seen these knives somewhere, if not in real life then in movies at least.
But did you ever wonder how it got such a funky sounding name? Ka-Bar wtf is that right? Is it something from a different language or what? Well kind of…
The story goes that not long after that particular knife design was released the company that made it got a really enthusiastic letter from a fur trapper. In it he thanked them for making the knife that saved his life.
In what was apparently really sketchy English he described how while out on the line he had come under attack by a bear. He shot the bear but was only able to wound it before his gun jammed and became completely useless. The only thing he had left to defend himself at that point was the knife by his side and much to his surprise he was able to use it to kill the bear before it killed him.
In the letter the trapper had written ‘k a bar’ instead of ‘kill a bear’. The company thought his letter was so powerful that they decided to adopt the phrase as the new name for their knife, and so Ka-Bar was born.
At least that’s how the story goes. And as stories go it’s a pretty cool one :).
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I am wondering whether this legend is real for a long time. If it’s true, the letter should be kept from 1923 to current days and we could find the picture on internet.
Hi Fivestone,
Yeah I agree. I was curious about the same thing when writing this post and did some research on it but couldn’t find any solid evidence anywhere that the story was true or even that the company claimed to still have the letter. It would be really cool if it was true though.