Fighting knife

[1][5] Fighting knives were traditionally designed as special-purpose weapons, intended primarily if not solely for use in personal or hand-to-hand combat.

2500 – 2000 BC) copper dagger blade was recovered from the Sillees River near Ross Lough, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland that had a remarkably modern appearance.

[10][11] French and Italian daggers of the 14th century were the first to introduce acutely tapered blades and reinforced points in response to improvements made in armor design and the need for penetration.

[12] The pesh-kabz dates from the 17th century and is of Central Asian and Persian origin, but was later adopted by the Mughals, who brought the knife with them on their campaigns to conquer India.

[12] As the importance of the dagger declined in military service, the weapon became extremely popular in civilian society as an item of daily wear, being used for everything from personal defense to dinner cutlery.

[13] The navaja was originally used primarily by the barateros of the underworld and the working class, but by the 1800s it had become an accepted personal weapon for Spanish men of all backgrounds, including the wealthy.

[13] In Portugal, the faca, a large fixed-blade fighting and utility knife accompanied Portuguese explorers and settlers during their conquest of Brazil, where the pattern remains popular to this day.

[14] In North America, the advantages of a large fighting knife were seized upon by American frontiersmen, who faced both animal and human opponents of considerable ferocity.

James became famous after killing one Norris Wright in a bloody melee at the Vidalia Sandbar Fight, but brother Rezin was the knife lover in the family.

Before the introduction of reliable and powerful cap-and-ball revolvers on the American frontier, the Bowie knife was often preferred to a single-shot handgun or "horse pistol".

[10] By 1900, civilian fighting knives were being mass-produced in a countless variety of shapes and sizes, though they all shared the common characteristic of being primarily designed for use in physical combat.

As the war progressed, French, British and U.S. ordnance branches began introducing fighting knives based on standardized patterns, such as the U.S. Mark I trench knife.

The Nahkampfmesser was extremely popular in German military service, and would be issued again in slightly revised form during World War II as the Kampfmesser 42.

[24] The KA-BAR differed from World War I-era U.S. fighting knives in that it was purposely designed as a dual-purpose weapon, adapted for both combat and as a utility knife.

A traditional single-purpose fighting knife, with an acutely pointed, stiletto-type blade designed to emphasize thrusting strokes (puncture wounds), the F-S was based on the concepts and ideas of William E. Fairbairn and Eric A. Sykes, two renowned former members of the Shanghai Municipal Police who trained countless soldiers in the art of close-quarters fighting.

[29] In the United States, Knifemaker Bo Randall began production of the "All Purpose Fighting Knife" giving it the designation of "Number 1" in his catalog.

Ingraham's request was for serrations on the spine to cut through the fuselage of downed aircraft to rescue trapped personnel and a hollow handle to allow storage of survival gear.

[31] During the Vietnam War, the Gerber Mark II, designed by US Army Captain Bud Holzman and Al Mar, was a popular fighting knife pattern that was privately purchased by many U.S. soldiers and marines serving in that conflict.

Custom knife makers began making similar knives intended for private purchase use by both civilians and military personnel.

The earliest production company to make a tactical knife was Al Mar Knives with their SERE model designed for the military with input from Special Forces Colonel James N. Rowe in 1979.

[38] These knives were most commonly built as linerlocks, although McHenry & Williams introduced the Axis lock, which is used by Benchmade Knife Company, under license.