Uses of dagger blades? Share your dagger pics (fixed, OTFs, historical, etc.)

killgar said:
Do a quick Google search for "duct knife", it's a double-edged knife designed for, well, duct work. It's very similar in design to the full-size SOG Pentagon fixed-blade (one plain edge, one serrated edge). In fact, if they were pictured side by side on this forum people would probably think the duct knife was an attempted copy, or at the very least that it was a weapon.
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When I did HVAC work, we had a duct knife on the truck. Nobody used it. It was pretty much worthless in my experience. A pair of scissors along with side cutters, for cutting the wire, were easier, faster , and did a neater job, cutting duct.

O.B.
 
Uses? finishing off people(such as in the Fairbairn Sykes style), finishing off animals (hunting, bullfighting), finishing off dictators(Ask Julius Caesar). Ornamental(make your house look pretty), ceremonial(certairn militaries), ritual uses(freemasons, wiccans and the like), cutting ducts apparently as well...

heck if you sharpen it properly you can use it for anything you like lol

 
Legendary_Jarl said:
Ah yes. Apparently many diving knives are double edge. No idea why.
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I think a lot of it has to do with the success of the Tekna boot/dive knife. Before the 1980's, many dive knives were more traditional. single edged designs. During and after the Tekna, lots of companies just had to have a skeletonized boot knife that could also work as a dive knife -

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I consider the full double-edged dagger to be a somewhat specialized tool. For field use, I have a Peter Bauchop Witch, a 3/4 dagger. The primary edge has a long enough ricasso to safely wrap a finger forward of the guard, and the top edge is only sharpened about 2/3 of the way, leaving enough spine to allow a thumb forward grip if you need more leverage. It's a decent enough using knife. I've sliced steak for fajitas with it, and other kitchen work. It's not an optimal kitchen knife, but perfectly serviceable.

I also have a dagger from Enedino Deleon, that has a leaf shaped 6" blade, fully symmetrical, but only sharpened halfway on either edge. The theory is that the un-sharpened portion becomes a fulcrum, so if you have to stick someone, when you work the knife for most internal disruption, it will be the sharp portion working deep, rather than the rear of the blade cutting mostly useless flesh. Not one that I carry, I'd have a hard time explaining it as just an outdoor tool...
 
If you were a big time drug dealer, daggers get used to puncture a wrapped brick of cocaine to test the drug purity!

Actually, while I have daggers in my knife collection, I wouldn't be able to give you a reason other than because I like how some look.
 
killgar said:
It depends on what task you want to perform, and the design of the individual knife. Wood carving and splitting fire kindling with a dagger, no. Opening packages and cutting twine, sure.

Do a quick Google search for "duct knife", it's a double-edged knife designed for, well, duct work. It's very similar in design to the full-size SOG Pentagon fixed-blade (one plain edge, one serrated edge). In fact, if they were pictured side by side on this forum people would probably think the duct knife was an attempted copy, or at the very least that it was a weapon.

Many years ago I worked at a shipping dock where knives were essential tools. There was an "old timer" there who carried an old Ek commando dagger (from his service in Vietnam). He kept one edge like a razor for some tasks, and the opposite edge with a rougher edge, sort of micro-serrated for other tasks. He never had any difficulty using that knife for utility purposes.

The closest I come to using a dagger for utility is my daily carry Cold Steel Tilite 4. It came with a shaving-sharp edge (which I maintain) and it serves me well for simple tasks like opening packages, cutting cord, and trimming the occasional hangnail, among other things.

"Daggers" come in a wide variety of designs, some better than others for utility purposes. Some have wide grinds with very fine, sharp edges that make them excellent slicers. And some have very wide, rounded 'bellies" which can increase their cutting versatility.

I wouldn't choose a dagger for a trip out into the bush, or for skinning a deer, but I'm sure that in a pinch a dagger with the right edge geometry could be used effectively for several tasks related to such activities (even skinning and dressing a dear).

In my life I've seen survival experts effectively skin game with a piece of broken bottle and the lid from a tin can. In the end, the average dagger is a sharpened piece of steel with a handle attached. And as the saying goes, it's not so much the tool, but the skill of the man who uses it.
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Well said, killgar. While some tools are more optimized for the job than others, it’s really skill and familiarity with the tool that count for the most part.
 
Lots of thoughtful answers and perspectives in this thread. I've always loved daggers, but I've never thought of them as anything but weapons. When I was a kid, I tried out a cheap, Pakistani-made Mark I rip-off in the woods. It worked OK, but couldn't hold a candle to my equally inexpensive bowie knife.

I recognize what Gerber was doing, marketing this as a "survival knife" in order to permit PX sales.

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But even before I discovered the rationale behind the labeling, I remember thinking to myself, 'Survival knife?! For surviving on the battlefield, maybe. But in the woods/field, I'd rather survive with just about any other blade style.'


DangerZone98 said:
Beautiful craftsmanship. Without your description, I would’ve thought that was something from a Lord of the Rings set or play.
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Nothing new under the sun, I'm afraid, particularly in warfare (even fantasy warfare!). Here's a picture of an original, which was beautiful in its own way but not quite so ornate.

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Unless I recall incorrectly, I believe Fairbairn modeled his Smatchet and his Fair Sword on that Welsh Fusiliers blade. But in the dimensions that those items were configured, we're starting to get into the realm of short swords rather than daggers.


If I was stuck with a dagger as my only knife for every possible use, I'd want a Cold Steel Tai Pan. It's long enough to hack with, wide enough to slice with, pointy enough to stab with, and thick enough to hold up.

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-Steve
 
Legendary_Jarl said:
heck if you sharpen it properly you can use it for anything you like lol
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Not that good at slicing tomatoes... The Fairbairn Sykes has such a thick and narrow blade (full flat ground, at that) that it can hardly be turned into a slicer. Not that it should. But in that eventuality, I would rather sharpen up a V-42 which was from the start designed to stab and cut (thin blade and deep hollow grind). Some eye candy yoinked from the web :
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Not trying to be overly technical but historically I don't think daggers were so much for fighting or SD as much as they were for dispatching a downed and spent opponent or deployed by stealth on an unsuspecting victim.

A stilleto was used to mercifully despatch a beaten enemy opponent who gives up and asks for a quick painless end or a heavily armoured knight that has been downed and injured the dagger is bought out in that situation after the fight is technically over as the primary fighting tools are not equipped to finish . Even the FS dagger was not used in a "fight" or SD per se.
 
Houlahound said:
Not trying to be overly technical but historically I don't think daggers were so much for fighting or SD as much as they were for dispatching a downed and spent opponent or deployed by stealth on an unsuspecting victim.

A stilleto was used to mercifully despatch a beaten enemy opponent who gives up and asks for a quick painless end or a heavily armoured knight that has been downed and injured the dagger is bought out in that situation after the fight is technically over as the primary fighting tools are not equipped to finish . Even the FS dagger was not used in a "fight" or SD per se.
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Ever heard of HEMA?

 
I find that daggers are best use for open letters, since it got both edge and quite slim, you can interchange either side on the whim. Even the tradition letter openers are dagger like shape.

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