Historical information
This knife and scabbard belongs to Lindsay Fankhouser, who wore it on his ankle when he served as an engineer/ crewman in the RAAF (Iroquois and Hercules) during the Vietnam war. He used this knife many times a day while he was serving.
Physical description
It is a brown leather knife sheath, with a decorative front and two canvas straps attached at the back. The shorter strap is located at the bottom of the sheath and the longer strap is located just below the belt loop. Both straps are fixed in place with stitching. The top strap has a square of stitching, while the bottom strap has two lines of stitching that follows the stitching of the sheath. The belt loop is at the top of sheath and is a fixed flap of leather that is folded across the top and also holds the handle of the knife in place using a circular hole that fits around the butt of the knife. The bottom canvas strap has three adjustable brass male press studs on the left side as well as the fixed female one on the right. The top canvas strap has four adjustable brass male press studs on the right side as well as as the fixed female one on the right. The sheath is held together by stitching and five iron rivets. There is one on the point of the sheath, two on either side of the top, and two more 51mm below the top two. 46mm above the sheath, there are another two iron rivets on either side. Above that on the holding flap, there are two iron rivets just above the circular hole on either side. On the flap, around the hole there are three brass flat-headed split pins, one on either side and one on the front. At the top of the sheath, above the decorative embossing, there is a dark brown jagged cut strip of fixed leather. All the leather on the object is a reddish-brown, while the canvas and stitching is light beige. The end stitching on the canvas straps is dark grey. The front of the sheath is polished leather, while the back is rough.
Inscriptions & markings
On back of belt loop flap, there is an embossd manufactuing patent number; PATENT Nr152.463
On face of the sheaf there embossed decoration. It depicts a lion with stylised decorative foliage and above the lion there is a fleur de lise. Above that it reads Soallingen Norge.
