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淘豆网网友近日为您收集整理了关于A Brief History of the Fairbairn Sykes Fighting Knife [William Cassidy]的文档，希望对您的工作和学习有所帮助。以下是文档介绍：A Brief History of the Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting KnifeWilliam L. CassidyCopyright
by William L. Cassidy. All rights reserved. No portion of this publicationmay be reproduced, stored, or supplied in any format without prior written permission.Additional restrictions on electronic use also apply. Contact the copyright holder for furtherinformation. Portions of this publication previously appeared in Soldier of Fortunemagazine.PrefaceThis is, first and foremost, a brief history of the Fairbairn-Sykes. I have not told all that couldbe told for a variety of reasons, among which economy of space and preservation of privacy aredominant.This is, nevertheless, an accurate history. It has been produced with the full cooperation ofLieutenant Colonel William Ewart Fairbairn's son and daughter, plete access toFairbairn's personal papers and manuscripts. Similarly, I have enjoyed the full cooperation of allother parties involved with the weapon, or with their surviving relations. Facts and figures havebeen checked rechecked: against official documents (some still classified, some declassifiedspecially for this account), and against interviews and correspondence with military instructors,intelligence officers, company historians, and cutlers the world over. The body of informationthus collected is unique and unlikely to ever be duplicated.Now that interest in the practical aspects of edged weaponry is once again in the ascendant,and with the original Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife available once again, it is important that thepublic be made aware of the history behind this most important of all fighting knife designs.This weapon was designed by men
therefore, it is not the idle invention ofmen who have never fired a shot in anger, nor unsheathed a blade to kill. This weapon wasproven in war, both conventional and unconventional, over a period of aproven in thousands of nameless battles by British special forces, American special forces, andby covert action personnel of at least three major intelligence agencies.Thousands of lives have been taken and thousands more have been saved by this weapon. It isthe standard of the fighting man's armoury. I do attempt to either glorify or condemn thekilling. I am as the archaeologist, and merely examine the artifact for clues.William L. CassidyIntroductionEach century of man's useful habitation of earth has produced an edged weapon unique to thatcentury. A weapon which is e upon which all understanding of bat with edged weapons is focalized, subjects to the needs and limitations of the societyand civilization of the time.This evolutionary process (and it is indeed an evolutionary process, for it has seen thedevelopment of edged weapons progress from stone through bronze, and iron to steel), hasreached its zenith in our own period, in what students of edged weapons now recognize as themost influential design of the twentieth century: the Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife.To call the Fairbairn-Sykes a mere fighting knife is to do it a disservice. The author prefers tothink of the Fairbairn-Sykes as position: the sine qua non of all edged weapons thatpreceded. I know, after years of study, that its simplicity is only a mask for many subtlemanifestations of perfection.The Fairbairn-Sykes is indeed a position. The story of how it came to reach thisperfection is to a significant degree the story of its inventors, and to a lesser degree, of theInternational Settlement at Shanghai in the decade 1930 to 1940; not so much a city as a stateof mind.But we anticipate. Let us first examine the weapon itself.The Fairbairn-Sykes is, in its essential form, a delicately constructed, straight-bladed, double-edged weapon, with much of the dagger about it. Of daggers, its blade most closely resemblesthat of the fourteenth century baselard. Overall, the Fairbairn-Sykes is frequently, albeit mostincorrectly, compared to the mid-seventeeth century Italian stiletto.Unlike the dagger or stiletto, which are intended for use as thrusting weapons, the Fairbairn-Sykes is designed to exploit both of the two properties of edged weapons, viz. thrusting, andcutting, or slashing.The distinctive feature which lends this quality to the Fairbairn-Sykes is its hilt. This hiltpossesses a vase-like, cylindrical grip, not unlike that of both mon rapier and left-handdagger grips of the seventeenth century English smallsword (itself a refinement of the rapier).The Fairbairn-Sykes grip owes its science to the principle of use so admirably demonstrated bythe cylindrical Italian foil grip: it in no way limits the possibilities for the weapon's employment.The guard of the Fairbairn-Sykes may also bespeak rapier and left-hand dagger by thepresence, in the first mass-produced model, of recurved quillions (known to collectors as the S-guard, or wavy-guard model).As originally produced in Shanghai, the Fairbairn-Sykes had a blade 6-1/4 incles long. Asmanufactured in Great Britain, 1941 to 1945, blade length increased to between 6-1/2 inchesand 6-7/8 inches. Today, one finds British blades a full 7 inches in length.With reference to blade length, it is interesting to note a report regarding the specification ofdesirable
designs, issued in 1924 by the Small Arms School at Hythe:&It has been conclusively proved during the war, and since, with our present system of trainingin the , that 'reach' is not a main factor but that 'handiness' is. A man with a short,handy weapon will beat an equally skilled man with a long, cumbersome weapon practicallyevery time. As regards length of blade for killing purposes, the Physical Training Staff went intothis in considerable detail during the war, and came to the conclusion that a 6-in. blade wassufficiently long to deal with the most thickly clad of our enemies--potential or otherwise. Themost thickly clad of our enemies was taken as being a Russian in winter clothing.&The grip of a typical, early mass-produced Fairbairn-Sykes is roughly 5 castand turned of brass, and knurled, to provide for a secure grasp. Its diameter at the largestpoint is almost 1 inch, this point being approximately 1-1/4 inches from the guard. Here, underordinary circumstances, the second finger of the hand will rest. Point-of-balance in the weaponwill be just slightly ahead of the second finger, approximately 1 inch from the guard.The grip tapers in both directions from the greatest diameter, toward the guard until it reachesapproximately 5/8 inch in diametyer, and toward the pommel until it reaches 1/2 inch indiameter. At the pommel it flares larger, forming a small knob, which aids in withdrawing theweapon from a scabbard. This is a most important feature. Atop this knob there is a threadedpommel nut (with more than a dozen variations, 1941 to 1977), usually made of soft iron orbrass. The pommel nut is used to affix the grip and guard to the tang of the blade.One questions the use of the so-called skull-crusher pommel nut, which is reputedly of value fordelivering blows to an opponent's temple area. This type of pommel nut has never essfully employed with the Fairbairn-Sykes, owing to the proper method the latter's use.Let us put it another way: striking one's opponent with the pommel of one's knife is a dubiouspractice, the fanciful notion of those who have no real experience with knife fighting. Why notstab the fellow and be done with it?The guard of the Fairbairn-Sykes is fashioned of 1/8 thick iron or steel, 2-1/3 inches by 5/8 inchoval. Rarely, one encounters a 3 inch specimen. As mentioned above, the first mass-producedtype bore recurved quillions. Post-1941, the recurved quillion guard was changed and mademore or less standard at 2 inches by 5/8 inch oval, struck flat. Thickness of the guard remainedat 1/8 inch.Here, then, is what we could call a typical Fairbairn-Sykes: a dagger-like cut and thrust weaponwith a foil-like handle, 11-1/2 to 12 inches in overall length, weighing approximately 8 ounces.DevelopmentThe Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife was developed in 1931, in the International Settlement atShanghai, China, by William Ewart Fairbairn (b. 28 February 1885, d. 20 June 1960), assistedby his son, John Edwin Fairbairn (b. 27 February 1914, d. 25 November 1977), and EricAnthony Sykes (b. 5 February 1883, d. 12 May 1945). The earliest known specimen of a pre-Fairbairn-Sykes weapon that may have influenced the Fairbairn-Sykes design is dated 1933; apresentation piece for W.E. Fairbairn from two officers of the United States Marine Corps,Samuel S. Yeaton, and Luther Samuel Moore. There are ten known specimens of this design,known familiarly as the &Shanghai Model.&In 1931, both Fairbairn and his son were employed by the Shanghai Municipal P the elderas supeerintendant in charge of the SMP Reserve Unit: the legendary Shanghai Riot Squad. Healso, in that same year, established the SMP Police Armoury, the first of its kind in the East,placing it under the supervision of a former White Russian colonel, Nicholas Solntseff.Eric Anthony Sykes was a civilian. He was employed in Shanghai by the S.J. pany,estate agents, and held a reserve rank in the Shanghai Municipal Police as sergeant in charge ofthe Sniper's Unit (a anization of skilled marksmen).Both Fairbairn and SYkes brough the accumulated experience of colorful careers to bear uponthe development of their weapon. W.E. Fairbairn left home at age fifteen to join the RoyalMarines (the recruiter falsified his age), and spent the Russo-Japanese War in Seoul, Korea, asa member of the British Legation guard. In 1907, at the age of twenty-two, he joined theShanghai Municipal Police, and was appointed Musketry and Drill Instructor three years later.In 1918, having awakened in a hospital ward after a tour of duty in Shanghai's lawless brotherdistrict, Fairbairn sought and received permission to pur first with ProfessorOkada (a sign in front of his studio proclaimed him a &Jui-jitsu Instructor and Bone Setter&),and later, Inspector Ohgushi, officer in charge of the Japanese Branch of the SMP. On 18Februaty 1931, at forty-six years of age, Fairbairn received a Black Belt, 2nd Degree, certifiedby the famous Jogoro Kano, president of the Kodokan Jui-Jitsu Institution, Tokyo, Japan.E.A. Sykes, for his part, was a shikari of considerable experience, and an monly giftedmarksman. Born in Great Britain under the name Eric Anthony Schwabe, he saw service as asniper in the First World War, changing his name to Sykes because he allegedly found his truename too Germanic. Sykes first made the acquaintance of Fairbairn in the late 1920s, and mon interests and temperament, the two became fast friends.The clearest account of the development of the Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting es to us fromFairbairn's son, Major John Edwin Fairbairn, OBE, who participated in the process, andsummarizes it by saying, &...it began with a hunting knife, a very nice hunting knife, and wethought what a lovely weapon this was. It was a picgsticking knife actually, but we made ourfirst knives from the tops of s, there in the armoury.&The new fighting knife passed the principles of bat Fairbairn and Sykes hadlearned from formal instruction, and from several hundred, documented, armed and unarmedencounters with members of the Shanghai underworld. It was small, it was equally efficientwhen thrusting or slashing, and could be handled like a foil. Thus it was particularly useful atclose-quarters, when the parties had resorted to wrestling, or blows.The first Fairbairn-Sykes found special favor among the young officers of the United StatesMarine Corps, then stationed in Shanghai. From time to time, interested officers would stop bythe SMP Police Armoury, where Colonel Solntseff could occasionally be persuaded to have hisstaff produce a specimen by hand. Unfortunately, it is not known how many knives wereproduced in this fashion, nor are any Shanghai-made specimens (save one) known to survive.The earliest known surviving example of a SMP Police Armory &Shanghai Model& (not to beconfused with the Fairbairn-Sykes SMP Armoury model) was presented to Fairbairn by Yeatonand Moore. It represents an attempt by Yeaton and Moore to &improve& on the first Fairbairn-Sykes. Within the Fairbairn family, this knife was referred to as the &Mexican Knife.&Following my introduction, Samuel S. Yeaton's younger brother, Prof. Kelly Yeaton, collaboratedwith Colonel Rex Applegate on a book describing their beliefs about the role of Samuel Yeatonin the development of the Fairbairn-Sykes, and the association of Kelly and Sam with Fairbairnpersonally. They also give Samuel Yeaton joint author's status on the work, yet Samuel Yeatonnever knew Applegate.Documentary evidence, the statements of Fairbairn's son and daughter, the statements of SMPPolice Armory personnel, and my own correspondence with both Samuel and Kelly Yeaton leadme to conclude that Yeaton and Moore played no immediate role in the inspiration for anddevelopment of the Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife. I believe that Yeaton greatly influencedFairbairn's thoughts on pistols, that he assisted the SMP Police Armory, and that both he andMoore influenced Fairbairn's evolution of the Shanghai School of knife fighting technique, buthis knife was the &Shanghai Model,& also known in variation within the Yeaton family as &Slith.&On 26 April 1977, Fairbairn's daughter wrote to me reference the Yeaton-Moore issue. MissFairbairn served with the Special Operations Executive during the war, and was herself skilled bat. I always found her to be a credible observer:&Re Officers Yeaton and Moore... I believe the knife they gave to Dad was of Mexican designand these two Officers showed Dad what they knew of knife fighting.&The knife in question was delivered in 1933. On the obverse, the blade is inscribed in blockletters filled with Chinese gold: TO WILLIAM EWART FAIRBAIRN / THE GREATEST OF THEM ALL.The reverse bears the names of Yeaton and Moore, and the legend SHANGHAI 1933. The guardis incised with a vine pattern, while the grip is of checkered buffalo horn (a specialty of the SMPPolice Armoury workshop). The pommel bears a small Chinese gold inset of the ShanghaiMunicipal Police crest. Inlay work was done by a Japanese craftsman named Komai, who had ashop in the Bubbling Well Road.The grip, from guard to end of pommel, is precisely 5 inches long. The blade, as mentionedpreviously, is 6-1/4 inches long. Overall the knife is 11-1/2 inches long, and weighs just undersix ounces.W.E. Fairbairn is known to have carried this presentation knife in a distinctive shoulder-scabbard. This scabbard, which allows the knife to be held vertically beneath the arm (blade up,hilt down), is steel reinforced for rigidity, and has built-in springs to hold the weapon securely inplace. The leather covering is tooled in a leaf pattern. The rig was constructed by Jack Martin,of Berns-Martin fame, and is currently in the possession of a British police official. The knife isin the author's possession: a gift from Fairbairn's son and daughter.In 1935, Fairbairn was promoted to missioner of the Shanghai Municipal Police,and in the following year was appointed officer in charge of the Armed and Training Reserve,and the Sikh Branch. In this capacity he distinguished himself through the most turbulent timesin Shanghai's violent history, laying the foundation to a legend which has survived to thepresent day.On 3 September 1939, Britain declared war on Germany, an event that led Fairbairn and Sykesto consider how best to contribute to the war effort. On 27 February 1940, Fairbairn retired withhonor from the Shanghai Municipal Police he had served so well, and in pany of Sykes,returned to England.The War YearsThis is not the proper forum for a recital of the events which awaited Fairbairn and Sykes inGreat Britain. Theirs is plicated story, that demands better than superficial treatment.Suffice to say that the two became specially employed as bat and silent killinginstructors: Sykes at the Special Training Center, Lochailort, Invernesshire, Scotland, Fairbairnwith the Special OPerations Executive.Our is, rather, the story of the Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife, and the autumn of 1940 providedthis story with one of its more interesting chapters.The need for a proper fighting knife was apparent from the first few weeks of trainingspecialized personnel. As Fairbairn later wrote, &...the authorities did not recognize a fightingknife as part of the equipment of the fighting services. In fact, such a thing as a fighting knifecould not be purchased anywhere in Great Britain.&So in early November 1940, at the suggestion of the office of the Chief Inspector of SMall Arms,newly gazetted Captains Fairbairn and Sykes paid a call to the offices of John Wilkinson-Latham, Wilkin pany, Ltd., Number 53 Pall Mall, London.There they presented the Fairbairn-Sykes design, and after lengthy discussion, Fairbairn&...managed to persuade the WIlkinson pany to manufacture it privately from anumber of old s they had in stock, personally guaranteeing the sale of three hundred.&An amusing anecdote has survived from this first meeting. In order to demonstrate the mannerin which a knife ought to be used, Fairbairn astounded the sedate Wilkinson-Latham bysuddenly grabbing a wooden ruler and assaulting Sykes in bat. The two knife fightingexperts--with greying hair and well past middle age--feinted and parried until Fairbairn endedthe demonstration by the simulated slashing of Sykes' throat.Following this decidedly unconventional business meeting, WIlkinson-Latham contacted CHarlesRose, head of the experimental workshop at Wilkinson pany's factory in SouthfieldRoad, Acton, London W3. He charged Rose, and the firm's foreman grinder, Mr. Martin, with thetask of producing three prototype Fairbairn-Sykes knives.Of these three prototypes, one is known to survive. Fairbairn kept it with him until the day ofhis death. From 1942 to 1960, he carried it in an OSS All-Ways scabbard. This scabbard, knownamong OSS trainees as the &pancake flapper,& was designed by Fairbairn for the OSS andmanufactured in the United States.Wishing to spare the collector the nuisance of counterfeits, we will omit giving a detaileddescription of this prototype, save to say that it has distinctive features mon with theother two prototypes.Of the two remaining specimens, one was presented to Sykes and is presumed lost. The otherwas retained by the factory. It was, in time, given to Wilkinson-Latham's grandson, Robert,atter was eleven years old. A year later, Robert traded it to a school chum for . We may set our fancy to work, and imagine this unique specimen resting in thecollection of some fortunate, although unknowing, knife collector.The first mass-produced Fairbairn-Sykes, as manufactured by Wilkinson, is characterized bynickel plating of the guard, grip, recurved quilions, and a rather unique blade.The blade has a square ricasso, or tablet, and tapers with straight edges to an extreme point.Among collectors, this is known as the &square shank.& This particular model is depicted onpage y-six of Fairbairn's book All-In Fighting,first published July 1942, and on page y-seven of the American edition, retitled Get Tough! How to Win in Hand-to-Hand Fighting.No satisfactory explanation for the blade's unusual tablet has yet surfaced, though allknowledgeable parties have been consulted. Structurally, the tablet adds nothing, and wasregarded as something of a nuisance by the grinders, who found it impeded fast production. Itis not present in the original Fairbairn-Sykes design, so we may not claim that the factory wasmerely following form. That the weapon was so designed in order to odate markingseems unlikely, and in any case unncessary: blades so marked and ground full length are foundin great numbers. The most reasonable theory supposes that the tablet was necessary due tosome structural peculiarity of the s then used for grinding-stock.On the obverse of the blade, the ricasso is etched with a mark of Fairbairn and Sykes' owndesign:TheF-SFightingKnifeOn the reverse appears Wilkinson's trademark: WILKINSON SWORD CO LTD LONDON, imposedon two swords.These marks exist in variation. They were taken up on paper transfers from an etching platewith three sets of marks. The transfers were then cut apart, and the appropriate marks wererubbed on the blade. WHen the transfer paper was gently pulled away, acid resist remained onthe blade. The blade was then etched according to conventional procedure.Blades were ground by hand, and the grip was first cast and then turned on a lathe. Knurlingwas done with standard tools, showing sixteen lines per inch in a diamond pattern, with littlecare expended as to appearance. Guards were stamped out annealed and shaped. The pommelnut was set down tight on the tang with a wrench or plier, and the tang end was then filed andpeened over. Guard and grip remain uniform on the first Wilkinson model Fairbairn-Sykesknives, but blades vary widely from speciment to specimen, owing to the hand-work. Oneseeming constant is thickness at the tablet: 3/16 inch in every specimen examined by theauthor.The first government order of the Fairbairn-Sykes came 14 January 1941, from one ofFairbairn's colleagues at SOE. In the absence of a formal contract (security demanded that suchmatters be dispensed with), Wilkinson's own order number 960 was written for 98 Fairbairn-Sykes knives: 50 to be sent to Knebworth, whence they were removed to SOE's Station XII; 48sent to Weedon, bound for SOE's Depot School near there. From these two centers the firstspecially purchased Fairbairn-Sykes knives were disbursed to other SOE schools and centers.Wilkinson pany awakened to demand for the weapon. According to RobertWilkinson-Latham, &Deliveries were made to certain specified depots but the bulk of theproduction as it became available was held at the London showrooms, where they were givenout against signed chits.& For not only SOE, but the whole of Britain's special forces clamoredfor the Fairbairn-Sykes. &The day they arrived,& Fairbairn remembered, &there was a near riot inthe rush to buy them.& Riot, the reader may understand, is not a word the manderof Shanghai's Riot Squad used lightly.Strange are the workings of secrecy. It is the once top secret purchases of the British SpecialOperations Executive which provide us with the only hard evidence we have of the firstWilkinson model Fairbairn-Sykes. Later in January 1941, order number 1005 was written for150 knives to be sent to Knebworth. In March, order 1235 requested fifty scabbards for thesame destination. On 29 April 1941, SOE purchased 500 knives per order number 1176.As the demand for the Fairbairn-Sykes was clearly substantial, Wilkinson's sought to streamlineproduction. In July 1941, Rose and Martin eliminated the blade's tablet, favoring a straight, fullgrind. Guards were struck flat. On 11 August 1941, per order number 1482, SOE purchased 51knives of the square tablet variety. The following day, the SOE representative placed ordernumber 1672 for 500 knives, with the notation, &to new design.& This was quickly followed byan order for 720 knives, also &to new design.&Using the Contract Book of Wilkinson pany as a reference, we can account for 799square tablet type Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knives. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, more wereproduced for sale at showrooms. We cannot know the exact number for factory records werepartially destroyed by bombing. The first Wilkinson model Fairbairn-Sykes then, though scare,is not as rare as previously thought.The day after Christmas 1941, Wilkinson's received War Office order number 2323/W, for 1,000Fairbairn-Sykes knives to be delivered to Experimental Station 6 (WD), a cover for SOE STAXII. The Fairbairn-Sykes had proven itself. Wilkson's, at first reluctnat to even consider theweapon, wound up producing some one quarter million Fairbairn-Sykes knives between 1941and 1945. British Secret Service records indicate that 3,019 of these went to the SOE.Wilkinson was not the only British manufacturer of the Fairbairn-Sykes, and the first and secondWilkinson models are not the sole two patterns. In about September of 1942, the so-called ringgrip pattern was introduced, and quickly became standard. The grip, thought to be the originaldesign of the Joseph Rodgers firm, of Sheffield, has 27 concentric rings, and is cast in a non-strategic alloy.In the autumn of 1942, the Rodgers firm also produced what may be the finest of all thewartime Fairbairn-Sykes knives: the beads and ridges model, so named by collectors for itsdistinctive grip pattern of nine rings of tiny beads, spaced with eight sections of five rings each,cast in pure brass. The blades are delicate and uniform, and the weapon, though light, isperfectly balanced. A variation of the beads and ridges is the so-called ringed and cog-wheelpattern, which never matched the former's excellent handling qualities, perhaps because thegrip was a bit loner than usual, and cast in zinc.We are unable to discover any particulars regarding the manufacture of these two Rodgersvariations. We do know that the beads and ridges model was produced in considerable quantity,and that thousands were sold as surplus in the United States and Canada during the post-waryears. One need only consult the advertising pages of American Riflemanmagazines publishedin the 1950s for suitable evidence. Among collectors, the ringed and cog-wheel pattern isconsidered the more desirable of the two.To return to the ring grip pattern, this is the kind of weapon we see sold the world over as mado knife,& at prices ranging from six to twenty dollars. Though consanguineous, wecannot really consider ring grip &commado knives& as true Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knives.From the manufacturers point of view, the ring grip is a desirable pattern. It is inexpensive andsimple to fabricate. From the scienced knife fighter's point of view it is plete disaster. Thegrip is fortable. When wet it is difficult to hold. Owing to the concentric rings it es easier for the weapon to roll from the hand, and finally, this form of grip all butdestroys the exquisite balance of a proper Fairbairn-Sykes. Indeed, Fairbairn is known to havebeen bitterly disappointed with the ring grip pattern, which he felt spoiled the Fairbairn-Sykesbeyond redemption.The consensus of opinion among Sheffield manufacturers is that approximately 6 million ringgrip pattern knives have been manufactured. APproximately 2 million were manufactured 1942to 1945, and the remaining 4 million in the thirty-odd years thereafter. This estimate takes ount the ones made in nations other than Great Britain, such as Japan, Italy, or Spain.The reader interested in further information regarding the marking of such knives, variations,and scabbard types, is directed to Captain Colin M. Stevens' excellent study, &mandoKnife,& Military Collectors Club of Canada Journal,XII:1 (1975) pp. 20-24.The OSS YearsThe American Office of Strategic Services, before it was so named, was known as the Office ofthe Coordinator of Information, or COI. In April 1942, W.E. Fairbairn found himself on loan toCOI, under orders of the New York-based British Security Coordination (BSC).One of Fairbairn's first concerns was to have the Fairbairn-Sykes knife manufactured for use byUnited States personnel. As he had, through the years, maintained contact with his formerstudents in the U.S. Marine Corps, the Marines seemed a likely candidate for first service toadopt the Fairbairn-Sykes.So, on 20 April 1942, within days of Fairbairn's arrival in the United States, the Marine Corpscontacted the Camillus pany, of Camillus, New York, and placed a substantial orderfor a new pattern Fairbairn-Sykes.The new pattern incorporated a cast aluminum hilt. The Marine procurement specialists,working with William D. Wallace, plant manager at Camillus, contributed this feature: adisppointing variation that, once again, eeded in destroying the weapon's balance andhandling qualities. This Marine model Fairbairn-SYkes was produced in 1942 only, with 14,370knives delivered in two shipments. Scabbards were purchased by Camillus from the pany.The Marine model was not plete ess, but Fairbairn did not give up. COI seemed thenext likely choice, and that choice was a fortunate one. COI administration was warming toFairbairn's methods and advice, and vast amounts of secret funds were being pumped into COIin anticipation of its anization as OSS.On 12 June 1942, one day before COI became OSS, contract 8 UN-VG was issued to Landers,Frary & Clark, of New Britain, Connecticut, for 10,000 Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knives at $2.23each. The Fairbairn-Sykes was now the first official dagger of America's first official cloak anddagger agency.To digress for a moment, this matter of price is an interesting one. The first Fairbairn-Sykesknives delivered by WIlkinson to SOE were sold at 13/6, including scabbard. Wilkinson kniveswere reconditioned at 11/- and scabbards sold separately for 4/6. On 31 October 1942, whenthe first tendered contract was let to Wolkinson by the Ministry of Supply, the price had jumpedto 17/9.Yet, when COI planners were costing out the special weapons program, internal documentsshow that 5,000 Fairbairn-SYkes Fighting Knives were estimated to cost $150,000. , based onBritish prices. In America, twice as many knives cost $22,300., against an original bid of$20,300.Unfortunately, COI/OSS received exactly what it paid for. The Landers, Frary & CLarkspecimens, without exception, were improperly tempered, and subject to fracture and bendingeven after light use. It is a pity, as the knives were otherwise nicely finished, and the OSS stylegrip is regarded as the best ever to be placed on a Fairbairn-Sykes. The coarse knurling waslaid on with a special rolling die, fourteen lines to the inch, allowed to run all the way to theguard. The author considers that rolling die to be a treasure. Unfortunately, it is lost.The OSS model knives were supplied in the distinctive All-Ways scabbard, mentioned earlier. Itis interesting to note that OSS planners agonized over whether to furnish the scabbard withblack or brown leather(!) finally deciding upon brown leather for its real or imagined moralevalue. Such were the worries of America's first secret servants. Need we add they might haveexpended as much care to the choice of steel, or manufacturer?By the autumn of 1942, the Fairbairn-Sykes design thus acquired something of a bad reputationin America. On the one hand, the Marine variations were returning from the field broken andotherwise battered, at least partly because the Marines were untrained in the correct method ofthe knife's use (something Fairbairn attempted to remedy in the autumn of 1942, when hebriefly served as an instructor to Marine Corps personnel.We quote Harold L. Peterson's excellent American Knives:&None of the Marines liked them... because their blades were too light and brittle for all-purposework and because they were designed so specifically for stabbing that they restricted thenumber of possible attacks and parries.&As know, this is a wholly incorrect assumption. The weapon was indeed designed so that itwould in no way restrict either attack or parry. As regards brittleness of the blade, this may wellbe a function of a too thin cross-section. Camillus informs us that the blades were a &highcarbon steel,& which is, of course, meaningless, and sent into service at 59 on the Rockwell Cscale, equally meaningless, as we do not know the steel. If, as we may safely assume, the&high carbon steel& was a class 350 steel, such as type 351 or 355, then it was a poor choice.Such steels are unsuitable for the Fairbairn-Sykes.Turning to the other case, due to improper tempering by Landers, Frary & Clark, the OSSvariations were almost totally useless. If you suspect sabotage, you are not the first. More thanone German was employed in the U.S. cutlery industry in 1942, and a counterintelligenceinvestigation was actually launched.The Post-War EraWith the U.S. Marines and the OSS to accuse it, no wonder the Fairbairn-Sykes suffered atAmerican hands. The author must also admit to assisting this slander by the criticismsappearing in plete Book of Knife Fighting(1975); something for which he was promptlytaken to task by more knowledgeable persons than those originally consulted. By way ofrepentance, let me be the first to state that properly employed, the Fairbairn-Sykes is no morelikely to break than any other knife, assuming proper care has been invested in itsmanufacture. FOr the Fairbairn-Sykes, however, this last is an unfortunately large assumption.Of all wartime manufacturers, we may say the only Wilkinson's managed to make the weaponproperly, and then only for a brief period.In order to conclusively establish whether or not the Fairbairn-Sykes is inordinately prone tobreakage, the author consulted numbers of British subjects having direct experience with theweapon in wartime conditions. In this regard we may well remember that while 24,370 knivestotal were manufactured for U.S. personnel, on the order of 2 million were manufactured forU.K. personnel. I feel that the British are thus in a better position than we to judge theweapon's merits.Britishers we consulted were unamimous in their praise of the Fairbairn-Sykes. There were, ofcourse, instances of blade breakage. One fellow broke his slashing truck tires. Another byattempting to drive the blade into an oil drum in order to engage in a bit of fire raising. But wehave not found a single instance where a properly manufactured Fairbairn-Sykes failed whilstbeing scientifically applied to the purpose for which it was originally designed.Still, the Fairbairn-Sykes, in America at least, never quite recovered from the effects of shoddyworkmanship. Late-war British specimens did nothing to add to its reputation and post-warspecimens sealed its fate for a good long while.At war's end, interest in the Fairbairn-Sykes faded, but still flickered. In 1948, all remainingstores of the OSS model were taken up by the Central Intelligence Agency, which thereafterissued the weapon as H00-0444 Knife, Fighting, Fairbairn, well into the early 1960s. mandos still use the weapon, and Wilkinson's still manufactures the weapon undercontract to the Ministry of Defense, and the Dutch and Norwegian governments. The knife wasalso manufactured in Japan, under CIA contract, as late as 1970, for the STudies andObservation Groups and similar long-range ration teams working in Southeast Asia, butthe quality just wasn't there. Too much time had passed since anyone had handled a properFairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife.In the late 1970s, whilst concluding my researches, I was struck by the fact that Fairbairn nevermade a dime from his design. Accordingly, I put together an investment and managementgroup and formed the Castle pany, in San Francisco. I thereafter purchased theproduction line at a Sheffield factory and personally supervised a run of 1,100 blades. I tookexclsuive license from the Estate of W.E. Fairbairn to use his name, and paid his surviving childa royalty on each knife sold.I purchased a special melt of class 410 oil-hardening cold work die steel for the forgings, andsample tested them at random throughout the run. As hardened, the blades ran between 65-1/2 to 66 Rockwell C. After tempering, all blades sampled ran 57-1/2 to 58-1/2 Rockwell C. Asmilitary specifications call for a bending test, this test was performed with the following result:the sample was bent under heavy load through an angle of 50 degrees before breaking. Thetwo broken piecs had taken no permanent set and showed a fine, silky fracture. Militaryspecifications merely call for a 30 degree angle. All testing was done under the personalsupervision of the Senior metallurgist of the British Cutlery and Allied Trades ResearchAssociation (CATRA).I retained the recurved quillions of the first mass-produced model, and turned my attention tothe grip. Special tooling was designed and built which allowed the knurling to be run on in oneoperation: fourteen lines to the inch, coarse, and extending to the guard, exactly as per theOSS grip. Grips are cast in best quality statuary grade bronze, and will take on a pleasingpatina with age.I next hired workmen that crafted the original Fairbairn-Sykes for Wilkinson's; some were quiteliterally brought out of retirement. The knife was ground, finished, and hafted entirely by theirhands.I brought the knives to America in small lots of fifty, and etched them with the original F-S播放器加载中，请稍候...
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A Brief History of the Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting KnifeWilliam L. CassidyCopyright
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