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Old 08-20-2005, 10:04 AM
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Cool The Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife-Part 1

Hello all!

As promised here is a look at the fascinating world of the World War II dagger used by British and Canadian special "Commando" units to conduct small raids on the coastline of Nazi-occupied Europe during the early 1940s. Eventually, in the war's latter years, these commandos took part in larger attacks against the German forces.

These types of closed quarter operations required a compact, but lethal fighting knife, and the British asked their two officers responsible for commando training to design one. In early, 1941, production was begun of the dagger, designed by William Ewart Fairbairn and Eric Anthony Sykes, which now bears their names, and is known as the F/S dagger for short.

During the remaining years of the war there were three major patterns used to produce these knives, with many variations within each major category. Today these daggers have become a field for specialized collectors, who are considered to belong to a "cult" by some (kind of like us Randall nuts) .

For those of you who are interested in the F/S daggers, I would recommend an excellent, very comprehensive book by Alan W. Locken, entitled "Collector's Guide To The Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife", 104 pp, published privately in 1995 and no longer in print. However, it's possible to pick one up on eBay like I did, if you are patient.




After the United States entered WWII in late 1941, Bo Randall designed not only his renowned "Fighting Knife" (model #1), but also more practical "Stiletto" (model #2) for regular troops, based on the original Fairbairn-Sykes dagger.

The third chapter of Bob Gaddis's book, "Randall Made Knives: The History of the Man and the Blades" (essential for any RMK enthusiast) covers the creation of these two knives in great detail.


I have just one example of the F/D dagger, and it is the most common third pattern version. Many of them were manufactured before the war ended, but did not "see any action" and mine is one of these.





Numbers of unused daggers were shipped to the U.S. during the immediate post-war years, and they were required to have "ENGLAND" stamped on the hilt:




Here are some more pictures showing the various markings, such as the mold number (there were four), 2 in this case:




An inspector's broad arrow stamp:




Part 2 follows:


David
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Last edited by Moosehead; 08-20-2005 at 10:08 AM.
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Old 08-20-2005, 10:12 AM
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The Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife-Part 2

Also this dagger came with a near mint period sheath, although it is not original to the knife.






Here's the F/S dagger with a WWII Canadian military medical badge worn by both doctors and nurses, who did their best to alleviate the suffering of those who served in the battle against the Axis-powers. We found it twenty-five years ago at an army surplus store.






I hope you find this forerunner of the RMK model #2 as interesting as I do.

Cheers!

David
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Last edited by Moosehead; 08-20-2005 at 10:15 AM.
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Old 08-20-2005, 11:09 AM
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Great read, David. I enjoyed the posts a great deal. Thank you.



-gary


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Old 08-21-2005, 04:10 PM
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Great post Moose. If I'm not mistaken, William Ewart Fairbairn and Eric Anthony Sykes took the original design from a dagger at the queen's armory of the Tower of London. The SF knife is a direct descendant of the knights in rusted armor.. Had a couple of the Sikes myself, but sold them a while back. Another offshoot of the SF knife is the V42 commando/raider Stiletto of the Canadian forces. The V42 is one of my favorite designs and is one of the deadliest designs ever made.. 8o


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