History? You might need to get in touch with Gerber. I know they were around in Viet Nam, They were liked by just about everybody in my unit. That was in the early 80s. I broke about a 1/4 inch off the tip of mine. I was throwing it into the ground, and found a rock. I reground the tip, and still have it today.
In the military it seemed everyone had one, but used a Ka-bar or something else that was a better chopper. I think we carried them only for sentry stalking. Which means they never got used.