Fighting knives
Over the last couple of days, your humble correspondent & our friend from Texas have been discussing fighting knives: a weighty & pertinent topic, what with the forthcoming local elections. Kukris … Messers Fairburn & Sykes immortal design & to be honest, tonight, I had a little bit of an Empire moment, what with all the talk of cold steel. Maybe I am maybe not alone in thinking that places like Iraq, Afghanistan or indeed the Gaza Strip are suitable places to re-introduce long-lost techniques of warfare. For instance, instead of cruising around in Landrovers waiting to get blown up by IEDs, perhaps the Army should try long lines of armed men snaking through the crowded bazaars. When Johnny Native tries to cut up a bit rough, the Toms could form a thin red line & indulge in a spot of volley fire. This was an infamously deadly tactic when soldiers carried the Brown Bess so replicating it with fully automatic weapons would be utterly splatter-tastic.
But lets not stop there... some good old-fashioned swordsmanship could come in handy as well. Sometimes a person will get shot & just slump over. No screaming, no fountain of blood, no nothing ... dull dull dull! Imagine the visual impact of an infedel, lopping off 1/3rd of your neighbour's head & then watching that poor sod stumble around in the street with a geyser of blood arcing out of his brutalized skull while the rest of the boys in the section push him around with rifles at the high port. Now that's how to get your message across!
Watching a 20 lb. slab of flesh fall from a fleeing looters back as he gets sliced by a sabre-wielding cavelryman would do more to put the fear of God into those people than any remotely-administered shock n awe hearts & minds reconstruction nonsense. In fact not so many years ago, a young & impressionable officer was discussing combat knifes with a very solid Sergeant. Said Sergeant, distilled 5,000 years of hand to hand combat within the context of the Cold War and gave his analysis as follows:
Well sir, you jump into a trench & stick a knife in some fooooking Roooski, 'is mate will fooooking shoot you. Get yourself an axe ... he said, tapping the hatchet he was wearing on his belt order ... you jump into a trench and lop some fooooking Roooski's 'ead off, 'is mate won't want to foooking know!
Wise words indeed !
Comments
Still think the F-S is a little too long, and the blade too light, for anything other than slitting the throats of German sentries -- not that this is a BAD thing, mind you -- but it is a trifle too narrow a function.
Give me a decent multi-purpose cutting/ slashing/ stabbing blade, such as the U.S. Marines' Ka-Bar Fighting Knife, any day of the week.
Now, using a sabre on Johnny Foreigner, on the other hand... ooh, it makes me all warm and tingly just to think about it.
Posted by: Kim du Toit | February 2, 2009 10:45 PM
You beast, you include a link that just had to be Kim and it only goes to his closed site, damn I thought it might be his new site??
Posted by: Chris Edwards | February 2, 2009 10:45 PM
Here ya go.
Instill some real fear.
Posted by: Kristopher | February 3, 2009 12:28 AM
I'll take the P-07 bayonet any day. Use it on the wild pigs during the weekend and the pigs in blue during Waco II
Posted by: Rhys | February 3, 2009 1:26 AM
1910 Bolo
It has the heft to whack off a limb (human or tree) and still has a point which can be used for thrusting.It is far superior to the Ka-Bar.
John
Posted by: John | February 3, 2009 3:25 AM
As my friends and neighbors in the 23rd Infantry used to say....
"TOMAHAWK!"
Posted by: D.W. Drang | February 3, 2009 4:44 AM
http://www.americantomahawk.com/
Posted by: toadold | February 3, 2009 2:05 PM
At the risk of sounding repetitive:
No new site: not now, not ever.
Posted by: Kim du Toit | February 3, 2009 3:51 PM
The Smachete.
Posted by: Gallimaufry | February 3, 2009 5:13 PM
Frankly, the Fairbairn Sykes is one of the finest combat knives ever produced. In the hands of an expert it is quite simply lethal. However, like all things it very much depends on the type of close combat envisaged, the WW1 trench club has a certain something.
Doubtless some safety nazi will complain that they are dangerous after all. If you serve abroad to teach Johhny Foreigner a lesson and have your head cut off, you jolly well don't blub about it afterwards.
Posted by: Michael | February 3, 2009 5:15 PM
I allmost believe you Kim, I really do not want to though, the only upside is I, like you have a lot more spare time. If you are ever in the Simcoe area of ontario I would love to buy you both a beer!
Chris
Posted by: Chris Edwards | February 4, 2009 1:15 AM
I own a KaBar fighting knife, purchased by me from the Marine Corps Exchange at MCAS El Toro, back before they closed the base. Great knife.
At to the FS knife, I've read that Chesty Puller wanted to have the Corps buy them and issue them, but he couldn't get the money to do so.
Posted by: Bob in San Diego | February 4, 2009 11:18 AM
The original Sykes-Fairbairn had a whopping great square tang that gave it a lot of strength and a natural gripping point. Thirty-some years ago the blade was redesigned without that part, and now they are a graceful ornament. You can't shave with it without cutting your thumb.
My money is on the Cattaraugus Marine Commando.
A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
Posted by: comatus | February 4, 2009 3:59 PM
If I'd go with a Ka-Bar I'd go for the tanto blade straight away. But then again, the Bundeswehr's KM2000 tops it.
If its the psychological effect we're aiming for, I'd suggest a fusion between H&K and Stihl to design the world's first functioning 'Chainsword': For the Emperor!
Posted by: Brazilski | February 4, 2009 5:31 PM
Two comments
1) I carried three knives in the field. Gerber Mark II as primary fighting knife carried inverted on my left LBE suspender. Aircrew survival knife (one of my best friends is a zoomie, we traded a lot) on my belt as my utility blade. F-S courtesy of the visiting PPCLI as my boot knife. Left the damn bayonet in the arms room.
2) Unfortunately, you're not going to be doing much slicing with the sabre iluustrated. It's the last design issued to the British cavaltry and was designed as a thrusting weapon. IIRC, the edges may not have even been sharpened.
Posted by: Beausaber | July 26, 2009 5:01 PM