Commando Dagger

The History Kife & Tool Commando Dagger is a realisation of the famous Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife, which is quite rightly referred to in specialist literature as the mother of all modern fighting knives. The F-S Fighting Knife was designed by the two close-combat legends, Lieutenant-Colonel William Ewart Fairbairn and Major Eric Anthony Sykes, during their service with the Shanghai Municipal Police (SMP). The first batch of 50 was produced by Wilkinson Sword Ltd. in Sheffield in 1941, after Fairbairn and Sykes had presented their ideas for an optimal combat knife there. The knife was first used by Allied commands such as the SOE, the SAS and the OSS. In the course of the Second World War, it was increasingly issued to regular units and subsequently adopted by special forces of various nations. Today it is a symbolic part of the insignia of numerous paratroops and special combat units. It was produced worldwide by various manufacturers without a uniform and binding pattern for the F-S. The current form corresponds to the 3rd pattern, which was produced from 1943 onwards and for which a uniform specification was not laid down until 1949 with the UK government specification E/1323E. NATO lists the F-S knives according to this specification under the supply no. 1095 99 963 2037. Our model follows this 3rd version, which is classic in every respect. The specification includes the following features: A narrow double-edged medium pointed blade of 18 cm length, an oval yet straight guard, the characteristic jimpings on the spindle handle of aluminium with a through-going tang and the complete blackening of all the parts of the knife. The dark brown leather sheath has a blackened and studded patch plate, a belt loop fastened with two studs with a simple, yet effective 20 mm wide rubber strap to secure the handle, and two leather straps for optional sewing on or sewing into a uniform. Tough 420 stainless steel was chosen for the blade.