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A BRIEF
HISTORY OF THE FAIRBAIRN-SYKES FIGHTING KNIFE
by William L. Cassidy
PREFACE
This is, first and foremost, a brief history of the Fairbairn-Sykes. I have
not told all that could be told for a variety of reasons, among which economy
of space and preservation of privacy are dominant.
This is, nevertheless, an accurate history. It has been produced with the full
cooperation of Lieutenant Colonel William Ewart Fairbairn's son and daughter,
with complete access to Fairbairn's personal papers and manuscripts. Similarly,
I have enjoyed the full cooperation of all other parties involved with the weapon,
or with their surviving relations. Facts and figures have been checked rechecked:
against official documents (some still classified, some declassified specially
for this account), and against interviews and correspondence with military instructors,
intelligence officers, company historians, and cutlers the world over. The body
of information thus 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 the public be made aware of the history behind
this most important of all fighting knife designs.
This weapon was designed by men who actually used it; therefore, it is not the
idle invention of men who have never fired a shot in anger, nor unsheathed a
blade to kill. This weapon was proven in war, both conventional and unconventional,
over a period of almost half a century; proven in thousands of nameless battles
by British special forces, American special forces, and by 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 is the standard of the fighting man's armoury. I do attempt to either
glorify or condemn the killing. I am as the archaeologist, and merely examine
the artifact for clues.
William L. Cassidy
INTRODUCTION
Each century of man's useful habitation of earth has produced an edged weapon
unique to that century. A weapon which is emblematic to its age; upon which
all understanding of personal combat with edged weapons is focalized, subjects
to the needs and limitations of the society and civilization of the time.
This evolutionary process (and it is indeed an evolutionary process, for it
has seen the development of edged weapons progress from stone through bronze,
and iron to steel), has reached its zenith in our own period, in what students
of edged weapons now recognize as the most 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 to think of the Fairbairn-Sykes as a composition: the sine
qua non of all edged weapons that preceded. I know, after years of study, that
its simplicity is only a mask for many subtle manifestations of perfection.
The Fairbairn-Sykes is indeed a perfect composition. The story of how it came
to reach this perfection is to a significant degree the story of its inventors,
and to a lesser degree, of the International Settlement at Shanghai in the decade
1930 to 1940; not so much a city as a state of 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 resembles that of the fourteenth century baselard. Overall, the
Fairbairn-Sykes is frequently, albeit most incorrectly, 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, and cutting, or slashing.
The distinctive feature which lends this quality to the Fairbairn-Sykes is its
hilt. This hilt possesses a vase-like, cylindrical grip, not unlike that of
both the common rapier and left-hand dagger 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 by the
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 the presence, 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. As manufactured in Great Britain, 1941 to 1945, blade length increased
to between 6-1/2 inches and 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 of desirable bayonet 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 training in the bayonet, 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 practically every time. As regards length
of blade for killing purposes, the Physical Training Staff went into this in
considerable detail during the war, and came to the conclusion that a 6-in.
blade was sufficiently long to deal with the most thickly clad of our enemies--potential
or otherwise. The most 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 inches
in length; cast and turned of brass, and knurled, to provide for a secure grasp.
Its diameter at the largest point is almost 1 inch, this point being approximately
1-1/4 inches from the guard. Here, under ordinary circumstances, the second
finger of the hand will rest. Point-of-balance in the weapon will 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 reaches approximately 5/8 inch in diametyer, and toward the pommel
until it reaches 1/2 inch in diameter. At the pommel it flares larger, forming
a small knob, which aids in withdrawing the weapon from a scabbard. This is
a most important feature. Atop this knob there is a threaded pommel nut (with
more than a dozen variations, 1941 to 1977), usually made of soft iron or brass.
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 for delivering blows to an opponent's temple area. This type of pommel
nut has never been successfully 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 dubious practice, the fanciful
notion of those who have no real experience with knife fighting. Why not stab
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 inch oval. Rarely, one encounters a 3 inch specimen. As mentioned
above, the first mass-produced type bore recurved quillions. Post-1941, the
recurved quillion guard was changed and made more or less standard at 2 inches
by 5/8 inch oval, struck flat. Thickness of the guard remained at 1/8 inch.
Here, then, is what we could call a typical Fairbairn-Sykes: a dagger-like cut
and thrust weapon with a foil-like handle, 11-1/2 to 12 inches in overall length,
weighing approximately 8 ounces.
DEVELOPMENT
The Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife was developed in 1931, in the International
Settlement at Shanghai, China, by William Ewart Fairbairn (b. 28 February 1885,
d. 20 June 1960), assisted by his son, John Edwin Fairbairn (b. 27 February
1914, d. 25 November 1977), and Eric Anthony 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; a presentation
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
Police; the elder as supeerintendant in charge of the SMP Reserve Unit: the
legendary Shanghai Riot Squad. He also, 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. David
Company, estate agents, and held a reserve rank in the Shanghai Municipal Police
as sergeant in charge of the Sniper's Unit (a volunteer organization of skilled
marksmen).
Both Fairbairn and SYkes brough the accumulated experience of colorful careers
to bear upon the development of their weapon. W.E. Fairbairn left home at age
fifteen to join the Royal Marines (the recruiter falsified his age), and spent
the Russo-Japanese War in Seoul, Korea, as a member of the British Legation
guard. In 1907, at the age of twenty-two, he joined the Shanghai 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 brother district, Fairbairn sought and received permission to pursue
judo instruction; first with Professor Okada (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 18 Februaty
1931, at forty-six years of age, Fairbairn received a Black Belt, 2nd Degree,
certified by 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 uncommonly
gifted marksman. Born in Great Britain under the name Eric Anthony Schwabe,
he saw service as a sniper in the First World War, changing his name to Sykes
because he allegedly found his true name too Germanic. Sykes first made the
acquaintance of Fairbairn in the late 1920s, and due to common interests and
temperament, the two became fast friends.
The clearest account of the development of the Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife
comes to us from Fairbairn's son, Major John Edwin Fairbairn, OBE, who participated
in the process, and summarizes it by saying, "...it began with a hunting knife,
a very nice hunting knife, and we thought what a lovely weapon this was. It
was a picgsticking knife actually, but we made our first knives from the tops
of bayonets, there in the armoury."
The new fighting knife encompassed the principles of close-combat Fairbairn
and Sykes had learned from formal instruction, and from several hundred, documented,
armed and unarmed encounters with members of the Shanghai underworld. It was
small, it was equally efficient when thrusting or slashing, and could be handled
like a foil. Thus it was particularly useful at close-quarters, when the parties
had resorted to wrestling, or blows.
The first Fairbairn-Sykes found special favor among the young officers of the
United States Marine Corps, then stationed in Shanghai. From time to time, interested
officers would stop by the SMP Police Armoury, where Colonel Solntseff could
occasionally be persuaded to have his staff produce a specimen by hand. Unfortunately,
it is not known how many knives were produced 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 be confused with the Fairbairn-Sykes SMP Armoury model) was presented
to Fairbairn by Yeaton and 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,
collaborated with Colonel Rex Applegate on a book describing their beliefs about
the role of Samuel Yeaton in the development of the Fairbairn-Sykes, and the
association of Kelly and Sam with Fairbairn personally. They also give Samuel
Yeaton joint author's status on the work, yet Samuel Yeaton never knew Applegate.
Documentary evidence, the statements of Fairbairn's son and daughter, the statements
of SMP Police Armory personnel, and my own correspondence with both Samuel and
Kelly Yeaton lead me to conclude that Yeaton and Moore played no immediate role
in the inspiration for and development of the Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife.
I believe that Yeaton greatly influenced Fairbairn's thoughts on pistols, that
he assisted the SMP Police Armory, and that both he and Moore influenced Fairbairn's
evolution of the Shanghai School of knife fighting technique, but his 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. Miss Fairbairn served with the Special Operations Executive during the
war, and was herself skilled in close-combat. 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 design and 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 block letters 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 guard is incised with a vine pattern, while the grip
is of checkered buffalo horn (a specialty of the SMP Police Armoury workshop).
The pommel bears a small Chinese gold inset of the Shanghai Municipal Police
crest. Inlay work was done by a Japanese craftsman named Komai, who had a shop
in the Bubbling Well Road.
The grip, from guard to end of pommel, is precisely 5 inches long. The blade,
as mentioned previously, is 6-1/4 inches long. Overall the knife is 11-1/2 inches
long, and weighs just under six 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 in place. 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
is in the author's possession: a gift from Fairbairn's son and daughter.
In 1935, Fairbairn was promoted to Assistant Commissioner 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 times in Shanghai's violent history, laying
the foundation to a legend which has survived to the present day.
On 3 September 1939, Britain declared war on Germany, an event that led Fairbairn
and Sykes to consider how best to contribute to the war effort. On 27 February
1940, Fairbairn retired with honor from the Shanghai Municipal Police he had
served so well, and in the company of Sykes, returned to England.
THE WAR YEARS
This is not the proper forum for a recital of the events which awaited Fairbairn
and Sykes in Great Britain. Theirs is a complicated story, that demands better
than superficial treatment. Suffice to say that the two became specially employed
as close-combat and silent killing instructors: Sykes at the Special Training
Center, Lochailort, Invernesshire, Scotland, Fairbairn with the Special OPerations
Executive.
Ours is, rather, the story of the Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife, and the autumn
of 1940 provided this story with one of its more interesting chapters.
The need for a proper fighting knife was apparent from the first few weeks of
training specialized personnel. As Fairbairn later wrote, "...the authorities
did not recognize a fighting knife as part of the equipment of the fighting
services. In fact, such a thing as a fighting knife could 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 Sword Company, Ltd., Number 53 Pall
Mall, London.
There they presented the Fairbairn-Sykes design, and after lengthy discussion,
Fairbairn "...managed to persuade the WIlkinson Sword Company to manufacture
it privately from a number of old bayonets 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 manner in which a knife ought to be used, Fairbairn astounded the sedate
Wilkinson-Latham by suddenly grabbing a wooden ruler and assaulting Sykes in
mock combat. The two knife fighting experts--with greying hair and well past
middle age--feinted and parried until Fairbairn ended the demonstration by the
simulated slashing of Sykes' throat.
Following this decidedly unconventional business meeting, Wilkinson-Latham contacted
Charles Rose, head of the experimental workshop at Wilkinson Sword Company's
factory in Southfield Road, Acton, London W3. He charged Rose, and the firm's
foreman grinder, Mr. Martin, with the task of producing three prototype Fairbairn-Sykes
knives.
Of these three prototypes, one is known to survive. Fairbairn kept it with him
until the day of his death. From 1942 to 1960, he carried it in an OSS All-Ways
scabbard. This scabbard, known among OSS trainees as the "pancake flapper,"
was designed by Fairbairn for the OSS and manufactured in the United States.
Wishing to spare the collector the nuisance of counterfeits, we will omit giving
a detailed description of this prototype, save to say that it has distinctive
features in common with the other two prototypes.
Of the two remaining specimens, one was presented to Sykes and is presumed lost.
The other was retained by the factory. It was, in time, given to Wilkinson-Latham's
grandson, Robert, when the l;atter was eleven years old. A year later, Robert
traded it to a school chum for a bayonet. We may set our fancy to work, and
imagine this unique specimen resting in the collection of some fortunate, although
unknowing, knife collector.
The first mass-produced Fairbairn-Sykes, as manufactured by Wilkinson, is characterized
by nickel plating of the guard, grip, and pommel nut; 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 on page ninety-six of
Fairbairn's book All-In Fighting,first published July 1942, and on page ninety-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 all knowledgeable parties have been consulted. Structurally, the tablet
adds nothing, and was regarded as something of a nuisance by the grinders, who
found it impeded fast production. It is not present in the original Fairbairn-Sykes
design, so we may not claim that the factory was merely following form. That
the weapon was so designed in order to accomodate marking seems unlikely, and
in any case unncessary: blades so marked and ground full length are found in
great numbers. The most reasonable theory supposes that the tablet was necessary
due to some structural peculiarity of the bayonets then used for grinding-stock.
On the obverse of the blade, the ricasso is etched with a mark of Fairbairn
and Sykes' own design: "The F-S Fighting Knife."
On the reverse appears Wilkinson's trademark: WILKINSON SWORD CO LTD LONDON,
imposed on two swords.
These marks exist in variation. They were taken up on paper transfers from an
etching plate with three sets of marks. The transfers were then cut apart, and
the appropriate marks were rubbed on the blade. WHen the transfer paper was
gently pulled away, acid resist remained on the 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. Knurling was done with standard tools, showing sixteen lines per inch
in a diamond pattern, with little care expended as to appearance. Guards were
stamped out annealed and shaped. The pommel nut was set down tight on the tang
with a wrench or plier, and the tang end was then filed and peened over. Guard
and grip remain uniform on the first Wilkinson model Fairbairn-Sykes knives,
but blades vary widely from speciment to specimen, owing to the hand-work. One
seeming constant is thickness at the tablet: 3/16 inch in every specimen examined
by the author.
The first government order of the Fairbairn-Sykes came 14 January 1941, from
one of Fairbairn's colleagues at SOE. In the absence of a formal contract (security
demanded that such matters 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; 48 sent to Weedon, bound for SOE's Depot
School near there. From these two centers the first specially purchased Fairbairn-Sykes
knives were disbursed to other SOE schools and centers.
Wilkinson Sword Company awakened to demand for the weapon. According to Robert
Wilkinson-Latham, "Deliveries were made to certain specified depots but the
bulk of the production as it became available was held at the London showrooms,
where they were given out against signed chits." For not only SOE, but the whole
of Britain's special forces clamored for the Fairbairn-Sykes. "The day they
arrived," Fairbairn remembered, "there was a near riot in the rush to buy them."
Riot, the reader may understand, is not a word the former commander of Shanghai's
Riot Squad used lightly.
Strange are the workings of secrecy. It is the once top secret purchases of
the British Special Operations Executive which provide us with the only hard
evidence we have of the first Wilkinson model Fairbairn-Sykes. Later in January
1941, order number 1005 was written for 150 knives to be sent to Knebworth.
In March, order 1235 requested fifty scabbards for the same 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 streamline production. In July 1941, Rose and Martin eliminated the blade's
tablet, favoring a straight, full grind. Guards were struck flat. On 11 August
1941, per order number 1482, SOE purchased 51 knives of the square tablet variety.
The following day, the SOE representative placed order number 1672 for 500 knives,
with the notation, "to new design." This was quickly followed by an order for
720 knives, also "to new design."
Using the Contract Book of Wilkinson Sword Company as a reference, we can account
for 799 square tablet type Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knives. Hundreds, perhaps
thousands, more were produced for sale at showrooms. We cannot know the exact
number for factory records were partially 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 1,000 Fairbairn-Sykes knives to be delivered to Experimental Station 6 (WD),
a cover for SOE STA XII. The Fairbairn-Sykes had proven itself. Wilkson's, at
first reluctnat to even consider the weapon, wound up producing some one quarter
million Fairbairn-Sykes knives between 1941 and 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 second Wilkinson models are not the sole two patterns. In about
September of 1942, the so-called ring grip pattern was introduced, and quickly
became standard. The grip, thought to be the original design 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 the wartime Fairbairn-Sykes knives: the beads and ridges model, so named
by collectors for its distinctive 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, is perfectly balanced.
A variation of the beads and ridges is the so-called ringed and cog-wheel pattern,
which never matched the former's excellent handling qualities, perhaps because
the grip was a bit loner than usual, and cast in zinc.
We are unable to discover any particulars regarding the manufacture of these
two Rodgers variations. 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-war years. One need only consult the advertising
pages of American Riflemanmagazines published in the 1950s for suitable evidence.
Among collectors, the ringed and cog-wheel pattern is considered 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 a "commado knife," at prices ranging from six to twenty dollars.
Though consanguineous, we cannot 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 and simple to fabricate. From the scienced knife fighter's
point of view it is a complete disaster. The grip is uncomfortable. When wet
it is difficult to hold. Owing to the concentric rings it actually becomes easier
for the weapon to roll from the hand, and finally, this form of grip all but
destroys the exquisite balance of a proper Fairbairn-Sykes. Indeed, Fairbairn
is known to have been bitterly disappointed with the ring grip pattern, which
he felt spoiled the Fairbairn-Sykes beyond redemption.
The consensus of opinion among Sheffield manufacturers is that approximately
6 million ring grip pattern knives have been manufactured. Approximately 2 million
were manufactured 1942 to 1945, and the remaining 4 million in the thirty-odd
years thereafter. This estimate takes into account 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, "Your Commando Knife," Military Collectors Club of Canada Journal,
XII:1 (1975) pp. 20-24.
THE OSS YEARS
The American Office of Strategic Services, before it was so named, was known
as the Office of the Coordinator of Information, or COI. In April 1942, W.E.
Fairbairn found himself on loan to COI, 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 by United States personnel. As he had, through the years, maintained
contact with his former students in the U.S. Marine Corps, the Marines seemed
a likely candidate for first service to adopt the Fairbairn-Sykes.
So, on 20 April 1942, within days of Fairbairn's arrival in the United States,
the Marine Corps contacted the Camillus Cutlery COmpany, of Camillus, New York,
and placed a substantial order for 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: a disppointing variation that, once again, succeeded in destroying
the weapon's balance and handling qualities. This Marine model Fairbairn-SYkes
was produced in 1942 only, with 14,370 knives delivered in two shipments. Scabbards
were purchased by Camillus from the Mosser Leather Company.
The Marine model was not a complete success, but Fairbairn did not give up.
COI seemed the next likely choice, and that choice was a fortunate one. COI
administration was warming to Fairbairn's methods and advice, and vast amounts
of secret funds were being pumped into COI in anticipation of its reorganization
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 $2.23 each. The Fairbairn-Sykes was now the first official
dagger of America's first official cloak and dagger agency.
To digress for a moment, this matter of price is an interesting one. The first
Fairbairn-Sykes knives delivered by WIlkinson to SOE were sold at 13/6, including
scabbard. Wilkinson knives were reconditioned at 11/- and scabbards sold separately
for 4/6. On 31 October 1942, when the first tendered contract was let to Wolkinson
by the Ministry of Supply, the price had jumped to 17/9.
Yet, when COI planners were costing out the special weapons program, internal
documents show that 5,000 Fairbairn-SYkes Fighting Knives were estimated to
cost $150,000. , based on British 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
& CLark specimens, without exception, were improperly tempered, and subject
to fracture and bending even after light use. It is a pity, as the knives were
otherwise nicely finished, and the OSS style grip is regarded as the best ever
to be placed on a Fairbairn-Sykes. The coarse knurling was laid on with a special
rolling die, fourteen lines to the inch, allowed to run all the way to the guard.
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. It is interesting to note that OSS planners agonized over whether to
furnish the scabbard with black or brown leather(!) finally deciding upon brown
leather for its real or imagined morale value. Such were the worries of America's
first secret servants. Need we add they might have expended 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 reputation in America. On the one hand, the Marine variations were returning
from the field broken and otherwise battered, at least partly because the Marines
were untrained in the correct method of the knife's use (something Fairbairn
attempted to remedy in the autumn of 1942, when he briefly 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-purpose
work and because they were designed so specifically for stabbing that they restricted
the number of possible attacks and parries."
As known, this is a wholly incorrect assumption. The weapon was indeed designed
so that it would in no way restrict either attack or parry. As regards brittleness
of the blade, this may well be a function of a too thin cross-section. Camillus
informs us that the blades were a "high carbon steel," which is, of course,
meaningless, and sent into service at 59 on the Rockwell C scale, 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 OSS variations were almost totally useless. If you suspect sabotage, you
are not the first. More than one German was employed in the U.S. cutlery industry
in 1942, and a counterintelligence investigation was actually launched.
THE POST-WAR ERA
With the U.S. Marines and the OSS to accuse it, no wonder the Fairbairn-Sykes
suffered at American hands. The author must also admit to assisting this slander
by the criticisms appearing in the Complete Book of Knife Fighting(1975); something
for which he was promptly taken to task by more knowledgeable persons than those
originally consulted. By way of repentance, let me be the first to state that
properly employed, the Fairbairn-Sykes is no more likely to break than any other
knife, assuming proper care has been invested in its manufacture. 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 weapon properly, and then
only for a brief period.
In order to conclusively establish whether or not the Fairbairn-Sykes is inordinately
prone to breakage, the author consulted numbers of British subjects having direct
experience with the weapon in wartime conditions. In this regard we may well
remember that while 24,370 knives total were manufactured for U.S. personnel,
on the order of 2 million were manufactured for U.K. personnel. I feel that
the British are thus in a better position than we to judge the weapon's merits.
Britishers we consulted were unamimous in their praise of the Fairbairn-Sykes.
There were, of course, instances of blade breakage. One fellow broke his slashing
truck tires. Another by attempting to drive the blade into an oil drum in order
to engage in a bit of fire raising. But we have not found a single instance
where a properly manufactured Fairbairn-Sykes failed whilst being 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 shoddy workmanship. Late-war British specimens did nothing to
add to its reputation and post-war specimens sealed its fate for a good long
while.
At war's end, interest in the Fairbairn-Sykes faded, but still flickered. In
1948, all remaining stores of the OSS model were taken up by the Central Intelligence
Agency, which thereafter issued the weapon as H00-0444 Knife, Fighting, Fairbairn,
well into the early 1960s. Royal Marine Commandos still use the weapon, and
Wilkinson's still manufactures the weapon under contract to the Ministry of
Defense, and the Dutch and Norwegian governments. The knife was also manufactured
in Japan, under CIA contract, as late as 1970, for the STudies and Observation
Groups and similar long-range penetration teams working in Southeast Asia, but
the quality just wasn't there. Too much time had passed since anyone had handled
a proper Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife.
In the late 1970s, whilst concluding my researches, I was struck by the fact
that Fairbairn never made a dime from his design. Accordingly, I put together
an investment and management group and formed the Castle Knife Company, in San
Francisco. I thereafter purchased the production line at a Sheffield factory
and personally supervised a run of 1,100 blades. I took exclsuive license from
the Estate of W.E. Fairbairn to use his name, and paid his surviving child a
royalty on each knife sold.
I purchased a special melt of class 410 oil-hardening cold work die steel for
the forgings, and sample 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. As military 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. The
two broken piecs had taken no permanent set and showed a fine, silky fracture.
Military specifications merely call for a 30 degree angle. All testing was done
under the personal supervision of the Senior metallurgist of the British Cutlery
and Allied Trades Research Association (CATRA).
I retained the recurved quillions of the first mass-produced model, and turned
my attention to the grip. Special tooling was designed and built which allowed
the knurling to be run on in one operation: fourteen lines to the inch, coarse,
and extending to the guard, exactly as per the OSS grip. Grips are cast in best
quality statuary grade bronze, and will take on a pleasing patina with age.
I next hired workmen that crafted the original Fairbairn-Sykes for Wilkinson's;
some were quite literally brought out of retirement. The knife was ground, finished,
and hafted entirely by their hands.
I brought the knives to America in small lots of fifty, and etched them with
the original F-S mark on every blade. To distinguish them, I also etched on
the Castle Knife Company logo. We sold them for $75. each, $80. for the "sanitary"
model with no etching. Production stopped in 1979 and will never be resumed.
The above venture was, in the end, a money-losing proposition, but we did not
do what we did for money. We did it to honor Fairbairn and Sykes, and the men
and women of the silent services. It is my honest belief that we produced one
of the better Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knives ever made.
I will end this brief account with one final touch of history. At London's Westminster
Abbey, just to your right as you enter the doors, a few feet from Britain's
tribute to Winston Churchill and close by the Unknown Soldier, is a memorial
to the British Commando, established by the Queen. Her Majesty had wished to
symbolize the fighting spirit that lighted England in her darkest days, and
to commemorate the brave men who paid the highest price.
There in Westminster, near the graves of Kings, poets, and heroes, Her Majesty
placed a solid gold Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife.
Copyright © 1977, 1999 by William L. Cassidy. All rights reserved.
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