The knife itself was not of Canadian issue, but British Army (although subsequent trial testimony would confirm such a model of knife had been issued to the Canadian Army until 1939). A Canadian soldier named Samuel Crowle had found this knife embedded in a tree close to one of the wigwams Sangret had earlier constructed in mid-August; he had intended to keep the knife due to its unique blade, but had been advised by a colleague to deliver it to a Corporal Thomas Harding, who had in turn handed the knife to Sangret on 26 August, suspecting the knife had belonged to him, given that Crowle had informed him he had found the knife near a wigwam "with some people talking inside".