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Columbia River Survival, Tactical & Combat Knives
A Ka-bar is the 7-inch fighting and utility knife used by the US Marines in World War II, and has been carried into battle by generations of Marines since. The knife itself is a Bowie knife with a seven-inch (17cm) blade, and was originally designed as a hunting knife around 1890 and would have been considered unremarkable in 1820. When war broke out, the US Marines anticipated a need for knives and daggers suited to trench warfare, and someone chose the Ka-Bar design from a catalog of hunting gear (the Marines bought a great many knives of a great many different designs from a great many suppliers during the war, but it was the Ka-Bar that was most common, most popular, and chosen for continued purchase and issue after the war was over).