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History of Boot Knives and Daggers

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Keywords- Boot Knives Daggers.

Contributed by Gurpreet Singh at earthyflavorance.biz

Much like battle axes, daggers evolved out of prehistoric tools. In Neolithic times, daggers were
made of materials such as flint, ivory or bone and were used as weapons since the earliest periods of
human civilization. The earliest metal daggers appear in the Bronze Age, in the 3rd millennium BC,
predating the sword, which essentially developed from oversized daggers. Although the standard
dagger, in many cases, was not as effective as axes, spears, or even maces due to its limited reach, it
was an important step towards the development to what is often seen as a more useful close-combat
weapon, the sword.

Neolithic dagger - Museum of Toulouse

Celtic dagger and sheath

However, from pre-dynastic Egypt,[1] daggers were adorned as ceremonial objects with golden hilts
and later even more ornate and varied construction. One early silver dagger was recovered with midrib
design. Traditionally, some military and naval officers wore dress daggers as symbols of power, and
modern soldiers are still equipped with combat knives and knife bayonets. In the second century BCE,
socketed daggers were known to be used in Minoan Crete as evidenced by archaeological recovery at
the Knossos site.[2]

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Historically, knives and daggers were always considered secondary or even tertiary weapons. Most
cultures mainly fought with pole weapons, swords, and axes at arm's length if not already utilizing
bows, spears, slings, or other long-range weapons. Roman soldiers were issued a pugio.

From the year 1250 onward, gravestones and other contemporary images show knights with a dagger
or combat knife at their side.[citation needed] The hilt and blade shapes began to resemble smaller
versions of swords and led to a fashion of ornamented sheaths and hilts in the late 15th century.This is
also a symbol of the church because the dagger look much like a cross.

The dagger is symbolically ambiguous. It may be associated with cowardice and treachery due to the
ease of concealment and surprise that someone could inflict with one on an unsuspecting victim—
many assassinations were reportedly carried out using one. Victims of such assassinations included
Julius Caesar, who suffered from 23 stab wounds from irate members of the Roman Senate. A cloak
and dagger attack is one in which a deceitful, traitorous, or concealed enemy attacks a person. On the
other hand, the dagger may symbolically suggest a determination to become courageously close to the
enemy.

With the advent of very protective plate armour during the Middle Ages, the dagger became
increasingly useful as a good close in weapon for stabbing through the gaps in armour. Books offering
instruction on the use of weapons predominantly described that the dagger be held in the hand with the
blade pointing from the heel of the hand both in armour and out of armour, and used by making
downward jabs. Straight jabs from a normal hammer grip were also used, though icepick style jabs are
more commonly depicted in manuals. The dagger was quite a common murder weapon, easily used by
commoners or vengeful aristocrats who wished to remain anonymous.

With the development of firearms, the dagger lost more and more of its usefulness in military combat;
multipurpose knives/bayonets and handguns replaced them. However, beginning with the 17th century,
another form of dagger—the plug bayonet and later the socket bayonet—was used to convert muskets
and other longarms into spears by mounting them on the barrel.

Daggers achieved public notoriety in the 20th century as ornamental uniform regalia during the
Fascist dictatorships of Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany. The resurgence of these dress
daggers and accoutrements in post-WW1 Germany gave a much needed boost to the flagging
fortunes of the metalworking center Solingen. Dress daggers were used by several other countries
as well, including Japan but never to the same extent as those worn by the Military and Political bodies
of the Third Reich. As combat equipment they were carried by many infantry and commando forces
during the Second World War. British commandos had an especially slender dagger, the Fairbairn-
Sykes Fighting Knife, developed from that used in Shanghai. U.S. Marine Corps Raiders in the Pacific
carried a similar fighting dagger, and others were fashioned for American forces and their allies from
cut-down World War I Patton sabers.

See some of our pictures of the contemporary boot knives

http://bit.ly/boot_daggers_20101112

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You can buy them online at

http://earthyflavorance.biz/swordsknivesdaggersweaponreplicas.aspx

What are Boot Knives-

A boot knife also sometimes referred to as a dagger is a highly concealable knife featuring a double
edged blade. These knives are typically placed in a protective sheath and carried in or on one's boot.
These are also considered combat tactical knives for self-defense and used by soldiers in the military
and law enforcement officers in many areas of the world. These fixed blade combat knives feature
blades that are usually between three to five inches in overall length and are designed for stabbing and
thrusting capabilities. in survival situations. People also carry them on a belt or under a pant leg. If
worn around the neck (by means of a chain or lanyard) they become a neck knife. Boot knives
generally come with a sheath that includes some form of a clip. Most have double-edged blades, like a
dagger.

A boot-knife carries with it a multitude of legal issues, as each defining factor is likely to cause legal
trouble in many jurisdictions. Some regions prohibit carrying fixed-blade knives, double-edge knives, or
concealed knives. Being that most boot knives fit all three of those categories, carrying a boot-knife is
not legal in most jurisdictions in the United States of America.

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