Trench knife
One type of stabbing weapon, the French Nail, was made by cutting and pointing the steel stakes used to support the barbed wire protecting trenches.
Approved as a standard military infantry weapon after its development by Lieutenant Colonel Coutrot[8] of the French Army, the Poignard-Baïonnette Lebel consisted of a long, needle-pointed, stiletto-profile blade with wooden handle and an integrated knuckle guard made of steel.
The British Army and its Commonwealth allies (e.g. Australia, Canada, and New Zealand) used a wide variety of trench knives during World War I.
Others were more specialised types, such as push daggers with a roughly cylindrical aluminium grip which was shaped to fit comfortably when the user's hand made a fist.
[14][15][16] The Mark I featured a full-tang design with a double-edged blade and a heavy bronze hilt incorporating a guard ostensibly shaped as a knuckle duster, though the latter was intended to protect the fingers and prevent the knife from being knocked from the hand while in combat rather than for use as a weapon.
Despite their look, the spikes on the knuckles were also defensive in nature, meant to make it difficult for the enemy to grab the knife in combat[13] Reflecting the savagery of hand-to-hand trench warfare, the Mark I's pommel incorporated a so-called 'skull-crusher' cap extension, ostensibly designed to stun or kill an enemy soldier and to provide a secondary weapon in circumstances where the blade was damaged or broken.
A special proprietary metal scabbard was issued with the Mark I, capable of accommodating the new knife and its oversized knuckleduster grip handle.
[17] This was a curious device consisting of a folding spring-loaded knife blade attached to a handle which fastened to the back of the hand and was secured by a leather strap, leaving the palm and fingers free for grasping other objects.
[17] The Hughes Trench Knife was evaluated as a potential military arm by a panel of U.S. Army officers from the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in June 1918.
[19] The Mark I required strategic metals to produce and was too costly to place into mass production, and had been criticized as being unsuited to more modern styles of hand-to-hand knife fighting.
Catalog of Standard Ordnance Items of 1943 explained: "The Trench Knife M3 has been developed to fill the need in modern warfare for hand-to-hand fighting.
While well-balanced (some paratroopers and rangers mastered the art of using the M3 as a throwing knife), the M3's blade was criticized as being too narrow for rough usage, particularly for utility tasks such as opening ammo crates and food tins, while its edge was found to be somewhat difficult to sharpen.
These include the stiletto-shaped daggers carried by Marine Corps Raiders in World War II, and fighting-utility knives made by KA-BAR and other manufacturers.
