The DAGGER by Tyr Neilsen

The Dagger has been used as a close combat weapon for thousands of years. Designed to be a stabbing and thrusting weapon, daggers have a short blade with a sharply tapered point and two sharp blade edges, which makes this knife deadly in stealth operations and hand to hand fighting.

Being sometimes used for self-defense and other times used for assassination or sacrifice, the dagger has earned both an honorable and disreputable reputation throughout history. The Dagger has been used as a close combat weapon for thousands of years. Designed to be a stabbing and thrusting weapon, daggers have a short blade with a sharply tapered point and two sharp blade edges, which makes this knife deadly in stealth operations and hand to hand fighting.

The dagger originated in the Neolithic Age as a short stabbing weapon made out of wood, flint or bone, and predates every weapon except for the club. There have been many names for the knife we now know as the dagger, and although the word ‘Dagger’ is of uncertain origin, it means "edged or pointed weapon for thrusting, shorter than a sword".

NEOLITHIC DAGGER FROM THE MUSÉUM DE TOULOUSE

Almost every civilization has used and developed the dagger, and over the centuries, daggers have ranged from simple basic tools to objects of high status. In ancient Egypt, daggers decorated with ornate golden hilts were used both as weapons and ceremonial instruments. A dagger made of gold and one made of smelted meteorite ore were found in Tutankhamun’s tomb.

TUTANKHAMUN'S IRON DAGGER BLADE

With the development and availability of metal weapons, daggers not only became more and more popular, they also became more effective and deadly. Though daggers have continually been used by the poorest commoner as well as royalty, it has been mostly the weapon of warriors and soldiers. Throughout the Middle Ages, the dagger was a great instrument for piercing armor, used to great effect in both the forward grip and reverse grip (Icepick grip).

ILLUSTRATION OF COMBAT WITH THE DAGGER FROM MANUSCRIPT BY HANS TALHOFFER (1467)

As the face of warfare continued to change and armor was no longer used, dagger techniques evolved and the forward grip became the conventional grip of the dagger, whilst the reverse grip was favored when attacking an opponent from behind. During the Renaissance Age, the dagger was the only weapon commoners were allowed to carry on their person, and it became part of everyday dress.

A SELECTION OF A VARIETY OF DAGGERS THROUGHOUT THE CENTURIES: 1. 13TH CENTURY IRON DAGGER 2. 13TH CENTURY IRON DAGGER, 3. 14TH CENTURY IRON DAGGER 4. 14TH CENTURY IRON DAGGER 5. 14TH CENTURY IRON DAGGER WITH CARVED BONE HANDLE 6. 14TH CENTURY IRON DAGGER 7. 15TH CENTURY IRON DAGGER 8. 15TH CENTURY IRON DAGGER 9. 15TH CENTURY THUMB RING DAGGER 10. 16TH CENTURY DOUBLE THUMB RING DAGGER 11. 15TH CENTURY VERONA DAGGER 12. 15TH CENTURY ANELACE DAGGER 13. 15TH CENTURY IRON DAGGER 14. 16TH CENTURY SWISS IRON DAGGER 15. 15TH CENTURY IRON GERMAN DAGGER

For hundreds of years the dagger continued to develop in length, width and quality, and in the 17th Century, it was put to a new use when it was attached to the end of a rifle and became a bayonet. Over time, the dagger became more of a supplementary weapon or specialty weapon, involved in operations where firearms could not be used. During the First World War, the dagger became the weapon of choice for trench warfare, where larger weapons were ineffective. After the war, the dagger was worn with pride as a sign of having served front line duty.

At the beginning of the Second World War, the dagger was part of combat equipment carried by infantry and commando forces. In 1941, after complaints about the quality of the daggers issued, a new dagger called the Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife, developed by William E. Fairbairn and Eric A. Sykes, was issued to British Commando and other elite units. With first hand knowledge of close-combat gained while serving on the Shanghai Municipal Police Force, Fairbairn and Sykes designed a slender but strong steel dagger. The F-S fighting knife quickly became extremely popular with commandos who used the knife for sentry elimination.

A similar dagger called the Marine Raider Stiletto was issued to U.S. Marine Corps Raiders in the Pacific, but this design proved to be less successful than the F-S dagger due to inferior materials and manufacturing techniques. The success of the Fairbairn-Sykes knife in World War II and then in Korea, led to many companies making their own versions of the F-S fighting knife. In 1966, during the Vietnam War, the Gerber Mark II dagger, designed by US Army Captain Bud Holzman and Al Mar, proved such an effective fighting knife, that many U.S. soldiers and marines who served in that war bought the knife privately for use in combat. The Gerber Mark II became so popular it was second only to the Ka-Bar knife in fame.

In the 1970s, the Gerber Mark II was discontinued from being sold in many places for being "too brutal". Gerber knife designer Al Mar added sawtooth serrations toward the hilt of the mark II, enabling the knife to be listed as a "survival aid". This allowed the Gerber Mark II to be sold as a survival knife, rather than solely a fighting knife.

Apart from use by military forces, most daggers are no longer allowed to be carried openly, but rather, have to be concealed underneath clothing. The boot knife, which is a short dagger compact enough to be attached to a boot, is one of the most popular types of concealable knives.

In many countries it is not even legal to own a dagger unless you have special collector’s certificate.

A boot/backup dagger is about the same size as a basic single edge Viking knife, that was used as an everyday utility tool by men, women and children in Viking Age Scandinavia, and a normal size dagger can compare in size to a narrow seax.