While attending the 2014 International BLADE Show in Atlanta, I had the opportunity to escape from my booth for a short time to do a little aisle surfing. As I walked from booth to booth, I saw much of the same as previous shows. As you can imagine, attending several knife shows a year you tend to run into the same people and see the same knives. As I walked past one particular booth I happened to notice a well-dressed jovial character who was speaking to a crowd of folks about the history of combat daggers. As a retired Special Forces soldier, I had always loved the classics like The Gerber MK II, the Fairbairn–Sykes, and The John EK Commando Daggers. The individual was preaching about American Craftsmanship and how important it was to preserve our heritage.

I looked up to see that I was standing in front of the Ka-Bar booth. My first thought was where did Ka-Bar find a guy who was so into history with a love for daggers to boot?

While fighting through the ever coagulating crowd at the booth, I heard this fellow mention the now out of business John Ek Commando Knife Company. As a lover of EK daggers, I knew this was a conversation I had to get in on. I introduced myself and explained that I owned a small knife company called Spartan Blades and had owned several EK Daggers when in the Army. As the conversation progressed I asked the guy his name and he replied “Nice to meet you, my name is John” “Nice to meet you John, How do you like working for Ka-Bar?” I replied. “Well, they treat me pretty good; I have been with them for a while” Assuming he probably worked for the company as a product rep or marketing guy, I asked him what he did at Ka-Bar. “Oh yea, I’m the President”…….Man did I feel like an idiot!

As the conversation progressed, John Stitt explained that he had just bought the old John Ek Commando knife Company and had plans to revive it. He explained that it was a decision of the heart more than business. He further explained that in many ways Ka-Bar was like a modern aircraft carrier. While great at its core tasks, it didn’t have the agility to make rapid changes. John felt that EK would give them the flexibility to try new and exciting things all while preserving the legacy of the company. (Pictured below an early dagger made by John Ek)

Read the rest here: https://spartanbladesusa.com/spartan-blades-blog/spartan-blades-ek-commando-knife-company-team-up-to-make-a-modern-version-of-the-legendary-ek-commando-dagger-/

If you’re into Spartan Blades, click the button below.

Button-Find-it