Commando dagger for opinion

[chahler]

Hi guys, I have this Commando dagger and would like to know if its a war time or post war made
Thanks

[chahler]

Only one make mark

[chahler]

Hi guys, when I cleaned the dagger I found it double marked England

[redline09]

as i was told in another thread, daggers marked "england" are wartime made but sold to the US after the war.

[britpc]

Hi Mate,
The knife is an original 3rd Patt from WW2. That's the good news
The bad news is its been taken apart more than once by the look of the nut. And the rest has had a really hard live when you think that it was never issued during the war but sold to the US after.
Well at least it is original

Regards
Irv

[Seaforth72]

Original F-S Fighting Knife

Yes, it is original.
Yes, it is the ringed grip (often called 3rd pattern in recent years by collectors)
Yes, the ENGLAND stamp was put on them when they were inported surplus into the US post-WWII BUT that does not mean it was never issued. Some ENGLAND stamped knives were in mint condition (I had a mint knurled grip B2/|\ one that I bought surplus about 1970 for $18 at United Army Surplus in Winnipeg. It was later stolen by a fellow named Turk who declared bankruptcy in the middle of the sale deal - he had my knife and I never did receive payment and they refused to return it!) and other ENGLAND stamped knives had been issued, used in service, returned to stores and then stamped ENGLAND and sold surplus.

The ENGLAND stamp usually means it is an original WWII knife.

One thing the ENGLAND stamp really tells you is that there is no way of knowing the WWII history of THAT particular knife. In other words, if a seller says this knife was carried by so and so in WWII he is making it up ... UNLESS it happened to be a Wilkinson made one with the person's name on it. As those were usually private purchase (like my father's 1943 one which I have) there is little chance any named versions were sold surplus with the ENGLAND stamp. Also some servicemen such as myself carried WWII surplus F-S Fighting Knives in the service so it is possible that some marked ENGLAND served in Vietnam for example. I had a Canadian issue marked one, knurled grip, which a Canadian friend, serving in the USMC Force Recon in Vietnam acquired from a Royal Marine while my friend was in Hong Kong on leave. He then had the scabbard modified in Vietnam for an unside-down carry on his left upper arm and carried it in Vietnam c.1973. I later donated it to the Canadian War Museum along with his camouflage uniform, webbing, helmet etc. The uniform is now on display.

This ringed grip F-S Fighting Knife model was on issue by the time of D-Day in Normandy ( 1944-06-06).

Most of these ringed grip F-S Fighting Knives have a mold casting number (raised) on the pommel, just above the ropmost ring e.g. 1 Some had stamped issue marks near the crossguard e.g.
/|\
I (i.e. Indian Army issue)

21
/|\

etc.

Colin

Hi Mate,
The knife is an original 3rd Patt from WW2. That's the good news
The bad news is its been taken apart more than once by the look of the nut. And the rest has had a really hard live when you think that it was never issued during the war but sold to the US after.
Well at least it is original

Regards
Irv