- Joined
- Nov 26, 2001
- Messages
- 1,375
The Fairbairn Sykes is undoubtedly one of the best designed daggers ever.
As many similar weapons, it's a military weapon, designed to perform a specific task in specific circumstances. Task that it performed extremely well.
In a war what functions is used, what doesn't function, is thrown away or traded for functioning devices.
Many german Luger pistols were traded over to italian officers in exchange of the famous Beretta 34.
The luger was a marvel of mechanical enginneering, perfectly built, accurate as a laser beam, powerful and stilish. And prone to jams, maintenance problems and so on.
The Beretta did just three things: shoot, shoot and shoot.
Were the F-S a poorly designed weapon, it would have been discarded in favour of something more efficient, especially by special forces which had a more lax concept of "standard issue" equipment and were allowed more freedom in choosing their weapons.
As for being "a rank badge", it's nonsense. SAS troops in WWII had other things to do than going around playing macho.
The F-S was used because it worked, and worked very well. Period.
So, saying the F-S is poorly designed as it's not a good utility knife is just as bright as stating that a Ferrari is a poorly designed car because it can't carry eight people and can't be used to plough a field effectively.
If you want a good utility knife, obviosuly, you'd bettere look somewhere else.
As for legal issues, in many states carrying a dagger (i.e. two edged blade) is a crime in and of itself, and is tantamount to carry a gun without permit.
As many similar weapons, it's a military weapon, designed to perform a specific task in specific circumstances. Task that it performed extremely well.
In a war what functions is used, what doesn't function, is thrown away or traded for functioning devices.
Many german Luger pistols were traded over to italian officers in exchange of the famous Beretta 34.
The luger was a marvel of mechanical enginneering, perfectly built, accurate as a laser beam, powerful and stilish. And prone to jams, maintenance problems and so on.
The Beretta did just three things: shoot, shoot and shoot.
Were the F-S a poorly designed weapon, it would have been discarded in favour of something more efficient, especially by special forces which had a more lax concept of "standard issue" equipment and were allowed more freedom in choosing their weapons.
As for being "a rank badge", it's nonsense. SAS troops in WWII had other things to do than going around playing macho.
The F-S was used because it worked, and worked very well. Period.
So, saying the F-S is poorly designed as it's not a good utility knife is just as bright as stating that a Ferrari is a poorly designed car because it can't carry eight people and can't be used to plough a field effectively.
If you want a good utility knife, obviosuly, you'd bettere look somewhere else.
As for legal issues, in many states carrying a dagger (i.e. two edged blade) is a crime in and of itself, and is tantamount to carry a gun without permit.
