Generosity

(Image of three agent's daggers we have on our web site. The brass handled one will be partly paid for by a generous donation from a visitor to the website) Who ever heard of someone donating something as payment for free information? I have! I have been the recipient of numerous donation of fighting knives. Several were donated to be posted on my website as a pat of our collection, http://www.fairbairnsykesfightingknives.com/ and just recently another man donated three knives for me to sell to raise money to further our collection. In today’s economy all of those donations are amazing examples of humanity at its best. When I started my web site it was with the simple intent of sharing our collection with people who were similarly attracted to British Commando Knives. After all, I had been collecting them for over 40 years and thought maybe someone else would find them interesting. Well so far we have had 40,000 visits to our site. Many people are return customers, but what is most amazing to me is how many are first time visitors. Where do they hear about us and where do they come from? Unfortunately our counter does not give us demographics other than return visitors and first-time ones. Whoever you are, we appreciate your interest and spending time on our site. Please continue with us on our journey of exploration. One of the more popular activities has been people emailing me with questions on grandpa’s knife or one they found in the attic or flea market. Some people contact us wanting to sell a knife, or buy a knife. They ask for appraisals on a knife they own or suggestions on what to pay for a knife. We are always glad to offer any help or information we can. Our page dedicated to “what is it, who made it” has a couple knives of interest from visitors. People have said if I collected a dollar from every visitor I could have easily paid for all of my purchases in the last couple years. I suppose that’s true. What we have collected is a great number of friends, known and unknown, who come to visit and share our passion for Fairbairn Sykes fighting knives. Thanks for coming and please continue to do so as we add more interesting examples to our collection and work to share them with you. There are three new knives listed on the following web site page for sale due to the generosity of our friend Malcolm. http://www.fairbairnsykesfightingknives.com/fighting-knives-for-sale.html

Obama Energy Fixation

I was just reading an article on Obama blocking the Keystone pipeline again and stopping exports of fossil fuel "preferring renewable energy." I wonder how one ships a boatload of solar energy? Anyway, I have a  great suggestion.

I suggest we fit Airforce One with solar panels (like he is putting on the People's White House). Once he gets airborne in Airforce One they should shut off the nasty fossil fuel burning jet engines and switch on the solar panels. END OF PROBLEM!!!

WW-II Agent's Daggers

Its been a while since I came here to talk about anything besides politics. So I hope a few of you have hung around. I really apologize but it has been so hard seeing our nation destroyed piece by piece.

Here are a couple very neat Agent's daggers from WW-II. They are described in more detail on our website www.fairbairnsykesfightingknives.com The top one is by WSC and has a nicely lathe turned walnut handle with 3 groups of five rings. There are other examples of this very same pattern extant. The oval steel guard is blued and the sleek blade is heat colored/tempered to a light bronze color.

The lower knife is a modern looking piece made by John Paisley (J.P) with ebony handle slabs held in place by brass pins. The sheath of this knife gives the impression of having been worn and displays sweat discoloration. The blade shape on this one is also replicated in other knives by J.P and one which I have on reserve marked only with a "4".

These hide-away knives were weapons of last resort. The overall sizes are about the same as a Gerber Guardian or a MK-I . I have really found this genre of WW-II knives to be exciting and little covered by most of the books on commando or other WW-II fighting knives. I am slowly grinding away on my book on FS knives and it will have a chapter dedicated to these and other clandestine knives.