sniper knife

[newshooter04]

i was watching that movie named SNIPER and saw where them men was fighting in the barn and i saw a big double edged knife the one man had on his leg and the other pulled it and stabbed it in his foot.can anyone tell me what kind of knife that is and who makes one like it.
it has a large double edge blade shaped like a leaf kinda.
david

 

[Planterz]

The knife is called a Smatchet. Boker makes a cheap verson, Al Mar made a very nice one. Fairbairn/Applegate design.

Some pictures: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=smatchet&btnG=Google+Search&sa=N&tab=wi

 

[stickbobby]

hey newshooter 04 just thought I would chime in with something I read about the use of the smatchet, It was an OSS weapon and in WW2 the OSS agents would bash an enemy over the head with it and the edge would cut through the helmet and kill the soldier. I guess thats where the hatchet part of smatchet comes from.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Check out the Bark River Forester.

Anyway, leaf-shaped blades shaped like that go back to the Stone Age. And a Roman soldier would have recognized a smatchet right away.

 

[Redguy]

It was an OSS weapon and in WW2 the OSS agents would bash an enemy over the head with it and the edge would cut through the helmet and kill the soldier.

Sounds like some show from the Monthy Python crew. You mean a German steel helmet? I respectfully disagree. It's an awful noisy and difficult way to kill someone anyway.

 

[Physics]

Actually no, you aren't supposed to cut through the helmet. It was designed so if you delivered an overhead strike to the neck of a German soldier and the blade hit the edge of the helmet it was heavy enough to keep going downward into the shoulder causing massive damage. You can also deliver stabbing thrusts with the blade too. Something you can't do with a hatchet.

I saw some History channel special awhile ago and they talked about the Smachet briefly.

 

[lagarto]

Hey Physics, I agree with you, but I have actually seen pictures that were purportedly attributed to fairbairn of the smatchet being used in such a manner. They were drawings actually of the thing smashing through a german helmet and the source I saw it in claimed that it came from a training manual. I actually think I saw it in an issue of TK back about 5 years. My point is that while your arguement makes a lot more sense, it's easy to see how stickbobby got confused. BTW new shooter, I think the one in the movie was made by Buck, I believe that they made a commercial variant for a short time, though I could be wrong. It looks like the cheap Boker version, but I think the movie predates them. I have the Boker LE version with Micarta handles and that is a nice knife. If you can't find one of the other versions by Al Mar, or don't like the Boker ones and have time to wait check these out. I don't own anything from EDMF but have heard nothing but good things here on BF.
http://www.edmfknives.com/

Lagarto

 

[bob bowie]

Yep, they used various Al Mars(SF-10, Smatchet, etc....), Ek's, and F-U(Kabar) knives in that film. The Buck/Wells Creek knives would be a bit too early.

An early Al Mar Smatchet runs $350-500 now.