Jim March
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Oct 7, 1998
- Messages
- 3,018
First up, the following post showed up on rec.knives and as you can imagine, caused a lot of people to damn near go into shock. I've withheld his EMail address so he doesn't get bombarded to hell and gone, but this is REAL as far as I can tell:
--------------------
Title: Cleaning out storage
Author: William L. Cassidy
I recently went through one of my storerooms and found that I had accumulated quite a bit of old material having to do with knives,
knife-making, and so forth, stemming from the period of time when I was the editor of Knife Digest, editor of American Blade (briefly), etc.
It strikes me that some of this material may be useful to one (or more) of the current knife-related publications. For example, I find several thousand photographs from the 1975-1980 era, a large amount of technical
correspondence from the various knifemakers of the era, etc.
I also found my knife-fighting archives, inclusive of correspondence, business records, etc., having to do with Rex Applegate, W.E. Fairbairn, the MEWD Corp., the Castle Knife Co., etc. There are
engineering drawings, reports, and all manner of other curious things.
I also found my box of prototypes, collectibles, etc., and my knife-related library, which is extensive and in some respects unique in the field. The former category is inclusive of some rare items, such as W.E. Fairbairn's own F-S knife (and the Wilkinson factory prototype thereof), Fairbairn's own Shanghai model (given to me by his son), Fairbairn's prototypes for knives he designed after the F-S, various
things that the cutlers in Solingen and Sheffield gave me, numerous OSS and intelligence community-related edged weapons, etc. Some of these items I will probably donate to the CIA museum, others I will sell. The latter category (i.e. the library) likewise has some nice things, inclusive of
unpublished manuscripts by well-known individuals, first-editions, signed copies, etc., etc.
I was, candidly, surprised to see that any of the above survived the twenty-odd years since I last cared to look.
If anyone is interested in this sort of material, please feel free to drop me a line with your offer.
--------------------
Jim again. So as soon as several dozen people got through choking, we eMailed him with "THIS IS VALUABLE STUFF!!!".
In exchanging private EMail with him and from later posts he's done, he seems to have a better handle on what he's got. He's slowly scanning stuff, and the very first pageload of material is now up at:
http://209.1.162.247/fairbairn.html
Must be seen to be believed. He then did another post to rec.knives detailing the most fascinating knife from that page, the Fairbairn "Cobra". It was a huge monster of a "heavy dagger" with a radical forward cant, and it won't take an astute observer to realize why I'd personally be freaked out on seeing it and reading about it. Here's his post on that piece from rec.knives:
---------------
One of the neglected episodes in W.E. Fairbairn's fruitful career is his post-war work in Cyprus.
I see he was most active in February-April 1956, working directly for G.H. Robins, Commissioner of Police, and H.J. Scott, OIC of the Mobile Reserve, Athalassa. The bulk of this effort was devoted to training riot police, authoring a riot manual, and developing a bullet-proof shield he called
the "STONE."
Singularly, he also spent considerable effort on developing something he called the "COBRA" fighting knife. His interest in this weapon, and the system of knife fighting it supported, continued after he returned to
England, and occupied his attentions up until his death.
Fairbairn's son, a retired British intelligence officer, told me that his
father was "never really satisfied" with the Fairbairn-Sykes knife and always thought to make improvements. Apparently, the elder Fairbairn believed that edged weapons are engendered by particular wars--an edged
weapon that is suitable in one, may not be suitable in another.
No doubt inspired by changes he saw in post-war Asia (the Empire was crumbling), he foresaw a time when "western-trained" knifefighters would confront "eastern-trained" knife fighters. While he had confidence in the Shanghai School methods of which he was the principal author, he was less sanguine about the abilities of the various practitioners. He also saw trouble looming in the Middle East, so he set about to instruct himself in the indigenous forms of knife fighting to be found there. Such thinking was, of course, a measure of his greatness.
The COBRA, and the COBRA method, was the result. His son demonstrated the techniques to me one winter's morning, in his backyard. The neighbors thought we were mad, cavorting around with fearsome-looking weapons whilst
dressed in suits. He also gave me Fairbairn's signed blueprints for the weapon, and a copy of a hitherto unpublished manual in its use. I have posted a picture of the weapons we used at:
http://209.1.162.247/fairbairn.html
The style of play is quite unique. Whereas the Shanghai School is centered on speed, the Cobra style is centered on confusion. Still, the two do have something in common--Fairbairn privately instructed that the method in knife fighting is to employ the blade like a snake's tongue, and this is
what inspired him to name his weapon the "Cobra." I do not know of many people in his era who went to the depths he did in this art--for example, he studied sleight of hand, to see if he could incorporate a professional
magician's misdirection methods, and these he worked into the "Cobra" style. I also noticed the style to have much in common with certain
Chinese styles, albeit with a decidedly Middle Eastern flavor.
Anyway, the above is by way of brief explanation of a reference I made in an earlier post. All of you budding authors are at liberty to quote me, but kindly do not quote me out of context, and be sure to cite your source. The difference between a scholar and a plagarist is a footnote.
-----------
Jim again. Obviously, anything further Mr. Cassidy can publish will be welcome. I've also put a bug in his ear in private EMail that enthusiasts with established reps in SoCal might be interested in doing some volunteer archival/scanning work, and we'll see what comes of it.
Collections of history of THIS sort don't just drop out of the sky. "Unpublished Fairbairn combat book - and STYLE"?
Jeeeeeeesus.
Jim March
--------------------
Title: Cleaning out storage
Author: William L. Cassidy
I recently went through one of my storerooms and found that I had accumulated quite a bit of old material having to do with knives,
knife-making, and so forth, stemming from the period of time when I was the editor of Knife Digest, editor of American Blade (briefly), etc.
It strikes me that some of this material may be useful to one (or more) of the current knife-related publications. For example, I find several thousand photographs from the 1975-1980 era, a large amount of technical
correspondence from the various knifemakers of the era, etc.
I also found my knife-fighting archives, inclusive of correspondence, business records, etc., having to do with Rex Applegate, W.E. Fairbairn, the MEWD Corp., the Castle Knife Co., etc. There are
engineering drawings, reports, and all manner of other curious things.
I also found my box of prototypes, collectibles, etc., and my knife-related library, which is extensive and in some respects unique in the field. The former category is inclusive of some rare items, such as W.E. Fairbairn's own F-S knife (and the Wilkinson factory prototype thereof), Fairbairn's own Shanghai model (given to me by his son), Fairbairn's prototypes for knives he designed after the F-S, various
things that the cutlers in Solingen and Sheffield gave me, numerous OSS and intelligence community-related edged weapons, etc. Some of these items I will probably donate to the CIA museum, others I will sell. The latter category (i.e. the library) likewise has some nice things, inclusive of
unpublished manuscripts by well-known individuals, first-editions, signed copies, etc., etc.
I was, candidly, surprised to see that any of the above survived the twenty-odd years since I last cared to look.
If anyone is interested in this sort of material, please feel free to drop me a line with your offer.
--------------------
Jim again. So as soon as several dozen people got through choking, we eMailed him with "THIS IS VALUABLE STUFF!!!".
In exchanging private EMail with him and from later posts he's done, he seems to have a better handle on what he's got. He's slowly scanning stuff, and the very first pageload of material is now up at:
http://209.1.162.247/fairbairn.html
Must be seen to be believed. He then did another post to rec.knives detailing the most fascinating knife from that page, the Fairbairn "Cobra". It was a huge monster of a "heavy dagger" with a radical forward cant, and it won't take an astute observer to realize why I'd personally be freaked out on seeing it and reading about it. Here's his post on that piece from rec.knives:
---------------
One of the neglected episodes in W.E. Fairbairn's fruitful career is his post-war work in Cyprus.
I see he was most active in February-April 1956, working directly for G.H. Robins, Commissioner of Police, and H.J. Scott, OIC of the Mobile Reserve, Athalassa. The bulk of this effort was devoted to training riot police, authoring a riot manual, and developing a bullet-proof shield he called
the "STONE."
Singularly, he also spent considerable effort on developing something he called the "COBRA" fighting knife. His interest in this weapon, and the system of knife fighting it supported, continued after he returned to
England, and occupied his attentions up until his death.
Fairbairn's son, a retired British intelligence officer, told me that his
father was "never really satisfied" with the Fairbairn-Sykes knife and always thought to make improvements. Apparently, the elder Fairbairn believed that edged weapons are engendered by particular wars--an edged
weapon that is suitable in one, may not be suitable in another.
No doubt inspired by changes he saw in post-war Asia (the Empire was crumbling), he foresaw a time when "western-trained" knifefighters would confront "eastern-trained" knife fighters. While he had confidence in the Shanghai School methods of which he was the principal author, he was less sanguine about the abilities of the various practitioners. He also saw trouble looming in the Middle East, so he set about to instruct himself in the indigenous forms of knife fighting to be found there. Such thinking was, of course, a measure of his greatness.
The COBRA, and the COBRA method, was the result. His son demonstrated the techniques to me one winter's morning, in his backyard. The neighbors thought we were mad, cavorting around with fearsome-looking weapons whilst
dressed in suits. He also gave me Fairbairn's signed blueprints for the weapon, and a copy of a hitherto unpublished manual in its use. I have posted a picture of the weapons we used at:
http://209.1.162.247/fairbairn.html
The style of play is quite unique. Whereas the Shanghai School is centered on speed, the Cobra style is centered on confusion. Still, the two do have something in common--Fairbairn privately instructed that the method in knife fighting is to employ the blade like a snake's tongue, and this is
what inspired him to name his weapon the "Cobra." I do not know of many people in his era who went to the depths he did in this art--for example, he studied sleight of hand, to see if he could incorporate a professional
magician's misdirection methods, and these he worked into the "Cobra" style. I also noticed the style to have much in common with certain
Chinese styles, albeit with a decidedly Middle Eastern flavor.
Anyway, the above is by way of brief explanation of a reference I made in an earlier post. All of you budding authors are at liberty to quote me, but kindly do not quote me out of context, and be sure to cite your source. The difference between a scholar and a plagarist is a footnote.
-----------
Jim again. Obviously, anything further Mr. Cassidy can publish will be welcome. I've also put a bug in his ear in private EMail that enthusiasts with established reps in SoCal might be interested in doing some volunteer archival/scanning work, and we'll see what comes of it.
Collections of history of THIS sort don't just drop out of the sky. "Unpublished Fairbairn combat book - and STYLE"?
Jeeeeeeesus.
Jim March
