Murphy knives

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Murphy Combat Knife/Murphy Clause Combat Knife Dave Murphy, who was a famous custom knife maker, is best known as the original supplier of knives to Gerber Legendary Blade Knife Company starting in 1938. His knives had the distinctive aluminum handle later seen on many thousands of Gerber knives. Murphy stopped his association with Gerber before the war and made approximately 90,000 Murphy Combat knives. These knives were marked on the handle Murphy Combat with USA on the obverse side. They were made for servicemen during and after WWII. These knives are now considered highly collectible by military knife collectors and are fairly scarce despite the relatively large number made. He also made about one hundred knives a year of a much less known knife called the Clause Combat knife. This knife was unmarked and similar to the Murphy Combat knife although the blade is somewhat more narrow. According to his son, Dave Murphy, in a written and signed account I have on the back of one of his business cards dated in 1989 these Clause Combat knives were made from left over parts from Murphy Combat knives between 1942 and 1949. The Clause combat knives were made by Mr. Clause, a neighbor of the Murphy's in Oregon. They were not produced by the Murphy Knife Company. It should be noted Murphy's son also made custom knives for a number of years and several have recently appeared on EBay. A cased commemorative copy of the Murphy Combat knife, with an etched blade, was issued by John Ek knives out of Richmond, Virginia in the early 1990's but due to the etching is fairly easily distinguished from the originals.

Murphy knives are documented and referenced in the following publications: US Military Knives Bayonets & Machetes, Book #4 by M. H. Cole (picture of a Murphy knife is on the front cover); Military Knives, a Reference by Trzaska, Silvey, Windrom, etc.; as well as in an article discussing Gerber Legendary Blades in the Portland Business Journal dated July 6, 2001.