Dagger
At least since pre-dynastic Egypt,[14] (c. 3100 BC) daggers were adorned as ceremonial objects with golden hilts and later even more ornate and varied construction.
Found in a Hattic royal tomb dated about 2500 BC, at Alaca Höyük in northern Anatolia, the dagger has a smelted iron blade and a gold handle.
[20] The artisans and blacksmiths of Iberia in what is now southern Spain and southwestern France produced various iron daggers and swords of high quality from the 5th to the 3rd century BC, in ornamentation and patterns influenced by Greek, Punic (Carthaginian), and Phoenician culture.
[21][22] The exceptional purity of Iberian iron and the sophisticated method of forging, which included cold hammering, produced double-edged weapons of excellent quality.
[21] One can find technologically advanced designs such as folding knives rusted among the artifacts of many Second Iberian Iron Age cremation burials or in Roman Empire excavations all around Spain and the Mediterranean.
[21] The Lusitanii, a pre-Celtic people dominating the lands west of Iberia (most of modern Portugal and Extremadura) successfully held off the Roman Empire for many years with a variety of innovative tactics and light weapons, including iron-bladed short spears and daggers modeled after Iberian patterns.
During the Roman Empire, legionaries were issued a pugio (from the Latin pugnō, or "fight"), a double-edged iron thrusting dagger with a blade of 7–12 in (18–30 cm).
[34] Weapons of this sort called anelace, somewhere between a large dagger and a short sword, were much in use in 14th century England as civilians' accoutrements, worn "suspended by a ring from the girdle".
The term dagger is coined in this time, as are the Early Modern German equivalents dolch (tolch) and degen (tegen).
[36] These techniques in some respects resemble modern knife fighting, but emphasized thrusting strokes almost exclusively, instead of slashes and cuts.
When used offensively, a standard attack frequently employed the reverse or icepick grip, stabbing downward with the blade to increase thrust and penetrative force.
This was done primarily because the blade point frequently had to penetrate or push apart an opponent's steel chain mail or plate armour in order to inflict an injury.
Beginning in the 17th century, another form of dagger—the plug bayonet and later the socket bayonet—was used to convert muskets and other longarms into spears by mounting them on the barrel.
The final function of the dagger was as an obvious and ostentatious means of enhancing a man's personal apparel, conforming to fashion which dictated that all men carried them.
Daggers achieved public notoriety in the 20th century as ornamental uniform regalia during the Fascist dictatorships of Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany.
British Commando and other elite units were issued an especially slender dagger, the Fairbairn–Sykes fighting knife, developed by William E. Fairbairn and Eric A. Sykes from real-life close-combat experiences gained while serving on the Shanghai Municipal Police Force.
Some units of the U.S. Marine Corps Raiders in the Pacific were issued a similar fighting dagger, the Marine Raider stiletto,[41] though this modified design proved less than successful when used in the type of knife combat encountered in the Pacific theater[42][43] due to this version using inferior materials and manufacturing techniques.
[46] However, daggers may be associated with deception or treachery due to the ease of concealment and surprise that the user could inflict upon an unsuspecting victim.
[53] One of the knives required of an American Bladesmith Society Mastersmith is the construction of an "art knife" or a "European style" dagger.
