O. Janson
Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting knife
| By
O. Janson |
|
(photos by Dr. William. Windrum with courtesy of Michael W. Silvey)
|
Special honour should be given to Robert Wilkinson Latham, Michael Silvey (USA) and Tom Parker (Canada) for their assistance with photos of some very rare items. Mike also assisted me with lots of information. |
(picture with courtesy of Tom Parker in Canada)
updated 2008-10-14
The Shanghai fighting knife.
|
To understand why the Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting knife became such a very good composition, we have to study the history of their lives and this especially from their time in Shanghai. |
William Ewart Fairbairn
 |
William
Ewart Fairbairn (28th of February 1885 – 20th of June 1960)
William Fairbairn left his home in Rickmansworth, Herts, England when he was fifthteen and joined the British Royal Marines. He was very skilled with fighting with bayonets. He won the annual championships for the military. 1917 he resigned and started to work with Shanghai Municipal Police force, (SMP). This was a police force for the international colony in Shanghai. At that time Shanghai was considered to be the most dangerous place in the world. He was once attacked by a gang of Tong members in the red light district. They left him on the ground more dead than alive. He was lucky and survived. He realised that he might not be so lucky next time. He started to train Jujutsu with professor Okada in Shanghai. Later he was accepted by Kodokan Judo University in Tokyo. He got the third degree of the black belt 1931. |
|
W. E. Fairbairn founded the first SWAT team. 1921 he became inspector and in charge for the training in man to man fighting and fighting with small arms. 1935 he became assistant chief of the police with SMP. He started a special attack unit in Shanghai for riots called Reserve Unite. This unit was the first SWAT team (Special Weapons And Tactics team) in the world.
Eric
Anthony Sykes
Eric
Anthony Sykes (5th of February 1883 – 12th of May 1945).
”Bill” Sykes was born in
Barton on Irwill. He came from an upper middle class family and his family
name was Schwabe. He had been an officer at a sniping unit during the Great
War. He changed his family name to Sykes which sounded more British.
He worked with a security
company in Shanghai which selling small arms. This company was run by the
British Secrete Service Here in Shanghai he met Fairbairn. They became very
good friends.
These gentlemen realised
that anybody who expects to be involved in a fight better use all the upper
hands possible. Fairbairn said that a man with the knife as the upper hand
compared to an unarmed man, even if he is well trained in martial arts.
This passport photo is the only known picture of
”Bill” Sykes. |
||
|
|
 |
|
Lee Metford M1888 bayonet later pattern. Private collection |
According to the some sources the history start in Shanghai
|
It was here in Shanghai 1931 they started to develop a new type of knives. The knives were made at the Shanghai Municipal Police (SMP) Armoury. It was under the supervision of a former White Russian Colonel, Nicholas Solntseff, his staff made knives on a custom basis for U.S.M.C. officers and others. The son of William Fairbairn, John Edwin Fairbairn, who also was working with SMP in Shanghai, has told the story how the knives were built. They used British Lee Metford bayonets M1888. These bayonets had excellent steel. We are told that they cut the bayonets in two parts and made two knives from each so they became rather short. The width of the blade was kept like the bayonet blade. This can however not be entirely correct, because if we study the tang of a M1888 bayonet it has two or three big holes for assembly of the hilt. For this reason the tang has to be repaired or at least extended which will make the construction weak. If we study the front part of the M1888 blade, it has a significant ridge and concave edge. None of the original reported Shanghai knives have concave edges. (See the picture on this page). There are several more technical indications about the contradictions in this story which are reported in Robert Wilkinson Latham’s book. We have to handle all these fancy stories with scepticism and remember that they were part of the propaganda machinery during WW2. To this we can add collectors who of course don’t know the true history but add what they believe to be true.
A young US Marines officer - Second Lt. Samuel Sylvester Yeaton (1907 -
1979) was also involved in the composition of Shanghai knife. His
correspondence with his family gives good information about these early
activities. His brother Prof. Kelly Yeaton has written a book
about this called The knife was carried in a scabbard hidden but easily accessible. This scabbard was a very important part of the knife system. Nobody knows how many custom knives were made; the number of known examples is extremely small. |
Shanghai knife with a grip of Ivory.
 |
|
The grip is
made from ivory. The handle style is from 1933, the first known design of the SMP daggers. The blade is made with a Japanese style copper habaki at the top. The blade is double edged. The knife was made to be worn with a wooden scabbard. (picture with courtesy of Tom Parker.) |
|
The
Ivory grip
dagger is 241 mm (9.5
inches) long. |
|
The knives were made at the Shanghai Municipal Police (SMP) Armoury, which was established by W. E. Fairbairn. It was under the supervision of a former White Russian Colonel, Nicholas Solntseff. His staff made knives on a custom basis for U.S.M.C. officers and others. It is not known how many custom knives were made, but the number of known examples is extremely small. The knife handles were made from a variety of materials, brass, wood, horn. All the blades were made from bayonet blades. The end pommel caps were made from shell casings. Everything was made by hand, similar models are seen but with different handle materials or blade styles. |
|
|
Here are two Shanghai knives made from a bayonet with handles of ebony and wood |
Grip of Ebony
 |
This knife is of later production than the ivory handle above. The leather scabbard can be hanging upside down or sewn in your clothing. This is the knife on page 24, photo 3 in ' The Earliest Commando Knives' by Dr. William Windrum.
|
|
|
The ebony handle has
horizontal grooves in the middle, there is crosshatching for the thumb ramp.
The crossguard is made of brass. |
|
The knife itself is 248 mm (9.75 inches) long. The blade is 143 mm (5.63 inches) long. It has
a full tang in one-piece with the blade. |
|
|
|
Handles from ebony and boxwood. |
|
Grip of Boxwood |
|
The knife with light coloured wooden handles has 5.5 inches blades, thick aluminium cross-guards, brass ferrules, handles of wood and brass pommels with threaded tang holes drilled through.
|
 |
|
|
|
This knife was made of a blade from a British M1903 bayonet which was made in March 1902. The ricasso has India acceptance arrow.
|
Grip of Walnut.
 |
|
This knife resembles the knife of the Yeaton brothers, except this knife lack the engraving and carved handle. This blade is 122 mm 4.80 inches and it is the shortest known knife. This is the knife on page 23, photo 2 in The Earliest Commando Knives by Dr. William Windrum. |
|
'The First Commando Knives' by Prof. Kelly Yeaton describes the life in Shanghai from 1932 onwards. It is a very nice book and on the outside you can see the knife of the Yeaton brothers.
|
 |
|
W.E. Fairbairn’s Shanghai Dagger 1937.
|
|
The dagger below is W.E. Fairbairn’s personal dagger. This knife was made in Shanghai Police Armoury and is stamped on the tang-Shanghai-with the year date of 1937. Overall length of the knife is 232 mm (9.13 inches). The crossguard is 2.5 inches Blade length is 125 mm (4.94 inches) long. |
 |
|
Here is the very Shanghai knife Cpt. W. E. Fairbairn brought with him to Wilkinson Sword Co. |
|
The blade is said to be made from the tip of a M1888 bayonet with sides of the diamond cross section blade. It has a full but welded tang. The cross guard is thin aluminium, flat sided with semicircular ends. The grip is heavy knurled brass. It has roughly the same shape as all the other Shanghai fighting knives.
|
 |
A whole goes through most part of the pommel and it is threaded in the end. The pommel screws on to the blade tang and eliminates the need for a pommel nut. |
|
|
The tang is stamped “Shanghai 1937.” It has been repaired as you can see.
|
 |
Upper blade of Shanghai knife
Lower blade of a Metford M1888 bayonet showing the central rib and arrow point
|
|
W.E. Fairbairn retired from his command in Shanghai and returned to Great Britain 1940 together with his friend E. A. Sykes. Sykes very good connections with the Secrete Service arranged new challenges for them as instructors for the Commandos and SOE. Both became Captains. The man who helped to get Fairbairn and Sykes over to UK was Captain (later Colonel) Leslie Wood R.E.
|
|
There are many doubts about if this is the true story or just a fairy tale. According to Robert Wilkinson Latham the entire story about manufacturing knives from old bayonets is impossible.
For sure there are many fakes out which are made from cut up bayonets. |
Wilkinson Sword Company
|
|
 |
 |
| Wiliam Ewart Fairbairn | Eric Anthony Sykes | John 'Jack' Wilkinson |
|
The demand for a good fighting knife was so very urgent that a meeting was arranged in November 1940 between W. E. Fairbairn, E. A. Sykes and Jack Wilkinson Latham at Wilkinson Sword Company. Fairbairn and Sykes described the type of knife they envisioned and the purpose for which it was intended. As discussion continued, preliminary sketches were drawn up and modified time and time again. - As Robert Wilkinson Latham tells it: 'In order to explain exactly their point, the two men rose to their feet and one, it was Fairbairn my grandfather mentioned, grabbed the wood ruler from his desk and the two men danced around the office in mock combat'. |
|
It is not easy to make new designs concerning one of the oldest weapons belonging to a man.
|
|
The meeting resulted in the Fairbairn Sykes Fighting knife, as it should be
called properly.
|
|
There is plenty of pure guesswork on internet about what happened to the first knives. I hope to spread some more light about what really happened by quoting Robert Wilkinson Latham with his own words: “To my knowledge the first knife after the meeting with my grandfather was made up by Charlie Rose, Wilkinsons top development/experimental engineer, possibly “tweeked” a little, shown to F and S again and that was that. That knife was modified in line with the tweeking, taken apart and given to the tool makers and the bits scrapped. (metal was scarce then). I got this first hand from Charlie Rose when I worked for him as a craft apprentice at Wilkinsons in his department in 1962. It was he who gave me the Wilkinson 1942 FS drawing, plus drawings of the No5 bayonet and the drawings and examples of experimental bayonets that later evolved into the No7 plus notes of meetings etc with people from CISA department. Any knives given to Fairbairn and Sykes were production models and I know that a small number of production knives were made available to Fairbairn to give away in the US (Also in the Wilkinson wartime newsletter there is a piece on a Commando coming to talk to the social club members and as he had lost his knife on a raid, he was given another.” |
|
The knife or dagger is one of the oldest weapons in the world and it is most likely impossible to make inventions any more. The unique feature of the F-S Fighting knife was the composition and the perfect balance. For sure Fairbairn-Sykes brought with them some specific ideas how they wanted a true fighting knife to look like. Jack Wilkinson Latham had a tremendously experience of different types of knives. In the archives of Wilkinson Sword a drawing has been found with his stamp and double dates on. One date is 4th of November 1940 – the same date as they met. The other date goes back to March 1931 - Years before the Shanghai knives. The design of the F-S resembles a classic dagger design which was common in Europe for hundreds of years. When we
admit that the unique feature of the F-S Fighting knife was the composition and
the perfect balance, we perhaps have to look for a forth man who contributed to
this feature - ‘… I helped to get Fairbairn and Sykes over to us from the Shanghai Riot Police … I was responsible for getting the well known “Fighting Knife” made and I seem to remember that I slightly altered the balance to ensure that they could be tossed from hand to hand without visual assistance. I expect Fairbairn and Sykes helped with this.’ We have to remember that there was a war going on and the British needed to encourage the public opinion in every possible way. The Commando units were an invention by Winston Churchill. A special knife for these Commandos was a strong contribution to the propaganda war. For sure this knife is not a one man show but a joint design by W.E. Fairbairn, E.A. Sykes, L.J.C. Wood and J. Wilkinson Latham to bring out the best Fighting knife for the best of the best as Fairbairn said.
|
 |
|
The design
of the F-S resembles a classic dagger design which was common in Europe for
hundreds of years. Private collection |
 |
Forming of Commandos |
 |
The Shanghai fighting knives |
|
There are three basic modells of the F-S fighting knife. |
|
|
1st Pattern F-S Fighting knife |
 |
2nd Pattern F-S Fighting knife |
 |
2nd Pattern F-S Fighting Private Purchase knife |
 |
2nd Pattern F-S Fighting w/o Wilkinson
trademark. like B2, Fat Man, Reverse Knurling |
|
3rd Pattern F-S Fighting knife |
 |
Beaded & Ringed - Roped & Ringed |
 |
|
|
Wood handles. |
 |
OSS -
Stiletto w.'Pancake Flapper' and |
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
Sheaths |
 |
Marks |
 |
UK Commando knives; Postwar production |
 |
The Stalingrad Sword made by Wilkinson Sword. |
References:
| Robert Wilkinson Latham | His own web site |
| Alan W. Locken | Commando 1940 - 1945 |
| Robert A. Burlein | Allied Military Fightingknives |
| Ron Flook | British and Commonwealth military knives. |
| Fredrick J. Stephens | Fighting Knives |
| Frank Trzaska | The O.S.S. Stiletto - Knife World February 1998. |
| Frank Trzaska | The Raider Stiletto - Knife World July 1997 |
| Kelly Yeaton | The First Commando Knives. |
| John Nowhill & son | Sheffield |
| Michigan knives | |
| Dr. William Windrum | The earliest commando knivesAllan W. Locken – Commando 1940 - 1945. |
|
Back to in Swedish
|
