18" Machete with Sheath

[Wildwood-Lake]

Looking for information on this Machete. On the sheath under the belt holder saids
B. M. Co. 3 VP then 1945 on the other side U S

[Bret4207]

Collins Legitimus military machete made for jungle service in WW2. Used to be quite common. I would imagine there is a military collectors site somewhere that can give more info.

[Multigunner]

At the Field Museum in the South Seas display they had a crate of Machettes once commonly used as trade goods in New Guinea and other islands that had a head hunter tradition.

I'm not sure of the details, but I think these were made by Collins, though there were probably other manufacturers over the years.

These Headhunter Machettes were very long, about the length of a calvary saber or longer, with rows of ferrules (blood grooves) in the blades, and seemed curved.
The Headhunters prized the blades, but made their own grips when possible. They would pay in gold dust (New Guinea has gold and oil though it was hard to get to) for a chunk of imported Rhino horn to carve into a handle. The grips cost more than their weight in gold.

[Wildwood-Lake]

This is another item that is going up for sale. I have found more information here on the items I been selling v.s. the net. However
this time I found the information I needed on the net. If anybody is interested in this I'll be selling it here in a couple of weeks. As I'm going on vacation.