New, American made reproduction of the WWII leather M6 Scabbards produced by the L. J. Barwood company. The M6 leather scabbard was designed for the M3 Trench Kniife which was to be issued to troops armed with the new M1 Carbines in lieu of a bayonet. Contracts for M6's were awarded to six leather firms, and each company used slightly different hardware to assemble them.

Barwood made approximately 29,000 scabbards in 1943. They used round staples, natural color thread, and a mix of standard and C-E rivets.

ATF's Scabbards: Our sheaths are made by us, in our factory in Columbia Ky, using American materials. They are die cut from premium 8 oz. leather, sewn with 100% linen thread, reinforced with C-E rivets & rivet staples. The steel plates that prevent the knife tip from piercing the bottom of the sheath are parkerized like originals. The steel lace set in the top of the sheath has been dipped in acid to lightly corrode the zinc plating to give it the dull gray look of a WWII scabbard. The components come from Massachusetts, Ohio, New Jersey, Georgia, and California.

We now have the correct C-E rivets with the concave heads used to secure the guard plates, peculiar to the Barwood scabbards- however, they are 1/32" larger than originals. I have been scrounging for the oddball rivets for nearly a year and this is the best possible. Both this size and the slightly smaller one were discontinued years ago- but when we called the manufacturer sniffing around for them, the lady we happened to speak to had seen a box of them during inventory a few months ago and they were about to junk them. Sometimes Mr. Murphy gives us a hall pass....

Colors
Natural: This is how they were made and issued when new, and how all of our scabbards start out.

Markings: The first thing we do after die cutting the parts is wet the leather and stamp the parts. Sadly, we don't have the laser aligned press that could insure perfect results- we have to use a steel stamp and a mallet just like they did in 1943. Thus, the crispness and alignment varies a bit- moreover, on the aged scabbards, the process to give them the used look can dull the impression somewhat. (The same thing happens if you wear them normally- it's leather- which is flexible and it wears.) If you require markings that are perfectly aligned, with every letter & number uniform in depth and clarity, our products likely will lack the precision to satisfy this desire.

For more photos and information on Trench Knives, M6 & M8 scabbards the the new book "US and Allied Military Knives" by Bill Walters is the best reference available.


Made in USA