M23 Snake Eater knives
M23 Snake Eater Alpha- High varied grind, false swedge, OD canvas micarta handle scales, fisheye loveless bolts and a copper pommel plate
M23 Snake Eater Bravo- half height grind, false swedge, nickel silver half guard, bone linen micarta handle scales, thin black spacers, exposed tang, stainless loveless bolts
M23 Snake Eaters
There are two Snake Eater models, The Alpha and The Bravo.
The Snake Eater gets its inspiration from the Counterinsurgency Support Office (CISO) knife supplied to the operators attached to the Studies and Observations Group (SOG) during the Vietnam War. That’s a lot of acronyms, I know. What it means is that the design holds a special place in military history, particularly Special Forces history. It was designed by a man named Ben Baker who was Deputy Chief of CISO, when he came up with the idea of the knife in or around 1964. The knife was issued “sterile”, meaning it was stripped of all identifying marks. This was to fulfill the directive that SOG operatives were to be unconnected to the United States government in every way if captured. (An interesting side note: Mr. Baker took his inspiration for the SOG knife from Mr. Bo Randall’s famous Model #1. )
The knife I have made takes only two elements from the original, the double hump spine and the clip point. Those two being the most recognizable features of the original knife and makes it instantly recognizable to knife and military aficionados. Otherwise the Snake Eater is pretty radically different from the original SOG knife. It is a full tang instead of a hidden tang (although you can order a hidden tang version if you’d like) and has the characteristic Turley dropped edge design. The Snake Eater is actually a Green River with two humps on the spine and a clip point. So it’s a Green River in disguise, you could say. It comes in your choice of two forms, the Alpha model or the Bravo Model. The Alpha comes with a pommel plate, the Bravo comes with a half guard and an exposed pommel. Both make terrific woods knives.
(I don’t recommend using the exposed tang on the Bravo as a substitute for a pommel plate. It will certainly take a beating from a wooden baton like the pommel plate, but by doing so you run the risk of hitting the handle scales and breaking them off the knife (ask me how I know).
Finally, the knife takes it’s name for the legendary Green Berets.
Alpha
Blade length: @ 4”
Handle length: @ 5”
Thickness available: Predator 5/32” thru 1/4”
Bravo
Blade length: @ 4”
Handle length: @ 5”
Thickness available: “1/8”” thru 1/4”