Revised Jan 1 2008 with updates

Carlson's Raiders Knife Never a V-44 nor a Bowie Knife but a Machete

The weapon commonly identified as a V-44 Carlsons Raiders Bowie knife was never a V-44 nor a Bowie, nor a knife. I know you can come at me with the early Coles books where he misidentified it as a V-44 and later still referred to it as a Bowie knife. It is in fact a Collins # 18 machete. Other writings have made the same mistake and this knife has many fanciful names (Gung Ho the most legitimate).

The V-44 is actually a lowly non-folding Case machete issued in 1944.

The government first ordered this weapon in 1934 as a Army Air Corp. Survival machete under Collins model number 18. The early machete had a green or greenish black horn handle and the Collins Sword Stamp tang mark which is a arched Collins and Co. over Hartford over No. 18.

The Carlsons Raiders legend starts when Capt. William F. Schwerin ordered six Collins # 18 machetes (with a rare nickle plated guard) and showed them to FDR's son Major James Roosevelt who immediately felt a big "knife" would boost the morale of a team of raiders they were creating under the command of Lt. Col. Evans F. Carlson. They ordered 1000 which had green or greenish black horn handles with a tang mark that was not the sword stamp but marked Collins and Co. over a arm holding a hammer arising out of a crown over Legitimas over Made in the U.S.A. over No. 18 (see photo above). These were hand etched by a specialized tool on the other side of the Collins tang mark 1 thru 1000 which makes them hard to fake for an expert because of tale tell traces in marking(see photo below- buyer beware). Markings are usually very faint so look close and do not polish out trying to get them more visible. The "One Thousand" will have the green or green/black horn handle.Some say there are  less than 20 identified knives of the "One Thousand" as most were traded off overseas by returning raiders. Remember these numbered knives were heavily used in moist jungle conditions and will not look pretty nor mint. Other Collins were ordered later and used by the raiders that have a black plastic handle as well as the more typical horn. They are not numbered and are hard to tell from the thousands made post war. If you get one from a family of a raider get as much paperwork documentation as you can.

I have been contacted by a researcher (Dec 07)  who says there were some plastic black handled etched "One Thousand" raider knives,claims to have  seen such and said such is documented in the book "Grunt Gear" by Alec Tulkoff. Tulkoff's book suggest's that in the original order of green horn handled Collins knives (which were the majority sent from Collins stock) there were some black handled ones freshly manufactured also tossed in and numbered. Turlkoff attributes this info to no named source, nor has a supporting numbered endnote about this. I note this as a possibility and must note that Tulkoff's book seems to be well researched. No picture of the number etching on black or green horned Collins is shown in his book. Time frame wise it could be a possibility so I must note this. As far as a plastic black handled "One Thousand" raiders knife I would suggest many extra questions be asked and verification demanded.  Tulkoff's research says only a couple of dozen numbered "One Thousand" are known to exist.

Do not confuse dating of this knife from the error of the respected author Cole made. Cole called the black plastic handled Collins machete type one and the green horn type two. The green horn came first having both the sword stamp collins tang mark (earlist tang stamp) then the tang mark pictured above for commericial and also World War 2 manufacture. Due to shortages Collins started making the black plastic handle about the end of 1942 or early 43.

There are many variations that can increase the value of the knife and give clues as to WW2 issue. Check the color of the brass of the guard (yellowish or red or nickled), and type of metal used for the handle pins (steel or brass).  Is it a wood handled post war etched commemorative model? Collins made a black plastic handle model but so did Case, Kinfolks and Western Cutlery. Remember the Raiders were disbanded in Feb of 1944. Remember Collins started the change over from green/greenish black horn handles to black plastic handles around late 1942 or early 1943. Un-numbered horn handled knives have more of a chance being related to the raiders than plastic in my opinion but once more seek documentation otherwise it is just another Collins that "could be" whether green horn or black plastic.

Case, Kinfolks, and Western were probably never carried by Carlson's Raiders, yet can be very rare too. Western are hard to find, then Kinfolk. These 3 makers weapons were probably for issue to the Army Air Corps near the end of WW2 and later issued to the newly created Air Force post WW2. Many including the plastic handled Collins as well as the early pre World War 2 issue green horn handled "sword stamp" Collins were traded to fighting men in the Pacific theater for booze or war related trinkets by the Army Air Corps pilots taking them out of their emergency bail out kits. But their relatability to the elite Marine "Raiders" themselves are far fetched wishful thinking. I have given you just a taste of this very collectible machete and its up to you to research why these differences are important and decide for yourself the rarest models.

Remember its a machete but I must admit in my hand its an American Bowie knife! Gung Ho baby!

Lower knife is a documented green horn handled "One Thousand" Collins in my collection with closeup of faint numbered marking to the right.

More info see my article in Knife World with all the details Sept issue 2007 page 22 which has a lot more (pages) of information.

The Sword Stamp 1934