Fighting Knives & Binoculars

Two interesting Fighting knives and a vintage pair of Binoculars

From the top of the above photo: All available individually priced;

Binoculars by Ross of London:

6 times magnification with 30mm object lenses.  Constructed in the traditional Brass & Glass manner.  The brass casing covered with a faux leather finish, black fading to brown in colour.  The top left hand side of the case marked;  “ROSS. LONDON / No 73191”   the right side marked;  “STEREO PRISM BINOCULAR / POWER 6”.  Both eye-pieces are fully adjustable with a scale marked on the bottom edge.  The  rear of the top frames are designed with a rectangular slot on each side at the rear to accommodate a carrying strap (A/F)   The lower or object end frame is marked “NLP 16”.

The Binoculars function very well with clear optics producing a very good image.  The central knuckle is slightly loose but not so to be a problem.  All the brass work has been painted black which is coming away all over the item.  A full functioning honest pair of binoculars from days gone-by which have recently been serviced by an optics engineer and should have plenty of life left in them yet.

£ 165.

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Second Pattern WW2  Fairbairn-Sykes Commando Knife

Overall length 11.1/8″  Thick straight blued cross guard (ovoid in shape)  Double edged blade length (now) 6.3/8″   The blade is blued with a very small triangular ricasso which is just under 3/8″ long.  There has been sharpening applied to the edges but it is very regular and the exposed steel edge very slim.  The point is loosing its shape and was originally fractionally longer but has disappeared over time.  There is one tiny nick on one of the edges,  about 1.1/8″ from the cross-guard.

The cast brass handle is 4.1/2″ long with the classic knurled grip.  The tang fixing nut is of steel and starting to brown from age.  Both the handle and the nut are suitably battered.  The cross guard is marked on the left top side with “broad arrow B2″ and on the other side one can see the end of the word “ENGLAND”.   The B2 mark is the inspectors mark who passed the knife for service.  The broad arrow the mark for the War Department.  Overall, this is a good genuine second pattern knife that was found in the USA, which helps verify the stamping of “ENGLAND”.  No refinishing or fettling detected.

£ SOLD

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Canadian Fighting Knife.

At first glance it is easy to assume that this knife is the remains of a bayonet that a soldier shortened after breaking  Well, that would be half right.  This is infact an officially shortened WW1 Canadian Ross rifle bayonet.  When the Canadians realised that they were going to be sucked into World War Two,  it was decided to re-use the obsolete Ross bayonets as a fighting knife.  Memories were only too fresh of the close quarter fighting in the trenches and a handy last resort knife was deemed a good idea by the Army.  So the knives were produced on a shoestring.  The conversion included filling in the bayonet to rifle stud holes and slots, which has been done very well.  Also the blade was altered and the cross-guard simplified.  The strange thing about this particular example is the extremely short handle.  The scabbard was very simply sown up at the required length and the excess removed.

The result was a short, strong Bowie type blade; very handy at close quarters when all else had failed.  The short handle has retained two wall-nut grips that are worn smooth and retained by two studs.  The blade is scratched – looking like it has been sharpened on a stone wall.  The strange thing about this particular is the surprisingly short handle – a nominal 3″. The knife is just over 10″ long in total, the blade length being 6.3/4″.   Close inspection of the brown leather scabbard will reveal the Canadian War Department mark of the broad arrow within the large C with a faint roman “X” beneath it.  For reference on this knife see The Military knife & Bayonet by Homer M Brett 2001.

£ SOLD

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