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Commando dagger


Buster

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Hi guys, I found this when my son moved into a house, the garage was full of rubbish , and this was among it along with a British army bush knife, . All I know is it's a commando knife, it's not got a lot of age to it , the handle is brass, blade is unmarked , in fact the only marks on it are the makers name (William Rodgers of Sheffield ) do any of you know what model /mrk it is or is it a repro

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Hi Buster, I'm a bit out of touch with edged weapons these days as the Scottish Government now require the sale of all edged weapons to be licensed in Scotland. So we no longer sell them, however we do see plenty of edged weapons being sold on-line by people in Scotland who clearly do not have the licence, this is a bit annoying but that's up to them, it is however illegal.

 

Anyway back to the knife you have, it's a post war 3rd pattern Fairbairn Sykes dagger with cast grip and blackened finish. These are not technically reproduction, but are still made today by William Rodgers of Sheffield. They are stamped England for export purposes, so really it's commercially made knife for the overseas market. :)

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Cheers Kenny, this might be a daft question but how can you tell from a mrk1 to a mrk3?. I know its a joke you can't sell a knife, you need a permit for an airgun, & God knows what's going on with deacts at the moment! I don't think they know themselves. :(

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yes it's a crazy scene, we have a high ranking policeman who comes into the shop,and in all his years of service he has never come across anyone being attacked with a German dagger. Why would someone spend £500 on a dagger when you can go into Tescos and buy a kitchen knife for a couple of quid,(without a licence)which is exactly what these guys use for knife crime.The fact that you don't need a licence in England to sell them,is even more annoying, but let's not get too political.

 

Back to the daggers,first pattern daggers had grips made from solid brass and featured lines cut into a diamond pattern.The grip and hand guard were nickel plated with the hand guard curved into an S shape.The top of the blade had the Wilkinson logo etched to one side and the F.S.Fighting Knife logo to the other. These were first made in 1940 and designed by William Fairbairn and Eric Sykes,hence the name.Here is a picture of the three different patterns. :thumbsup:

 

fighting knifes.jpg

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Thanks Kenny , now I see them side by side it's clear . I see the mark1 is the only one with a ricasso! I wonder if they omitted it for faster production

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I would imagine this was the case Buster, although maybe it would also do more damage without the ricasso. The second pattern came out in 1942 this time another company J. Clark & Son also made them along with Wilkinson. The one in the picture will most likely be a Clark made one as Wilkinson continued to add their logo to second patterns albeit without the ricasso. It is also possible it might be B2 also made by Wilkinson but without the logo, instead it would have B2 stamped on the crossguard.

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