Dr. William A. Windrum has been a collector of interesting and exotic military knives for several decades. Beginning in 1996, Dr. Windrum undertook the task of photographing his collection and putting to paper the wealth of information he had gathered over the years. The result was a series of KNIFE WORLD articles on subjects that included Fairbairn-Sykes and other commando knives as well as clandestine edged weapons such as the Fair-Sword. These articles have now been collected in two books from Phillips Publications, THE EARLIEST COMMANDO KNIVES and CLANDESTINE EDGED WEAPONS.
Clandestine Edged Weapons compiles all of Windrum’s KNIFE WORLD articles on clandestine items into a convenient and inexpensive volume, something that everyone who enjoyed them the first time around should find most useful. It consists of seven articles: “Clandestine Edged Weapons: Thumb Knives”, “More Clandestine Edged Weapons: Instep and Penetrating Knives”, “Clandestine Garrote Knives of WWII”, “Clandestine Weapons: Four Other Types”, “The Fair-Sword, Fairbairn’s Improved Smatchet”, “The Fair-Sword Revisited”, and “The CIA’s Air America Knife”. Each is illustrated with photographs of many rare and unusual knives, some of them one-of-a-kind (or nearly so). A few period images have been added to this collection, which help to place the knives in a wartime context. The text brims with information gained from the author’s many years of study and research, and evidences the keen eye that Dr. Windrum has for detail.
One of the articles in this book (the first “Fair-Sword” piece) has been previously published in book form, 2001’s Military Knives: A Reference Book. This minor overlap in coverage should not affect the book’s usefulness, especially in light of the fact that the enlightening second article on the Fair-Sword is included here but not in MK:ARB (which preceded it.)
In short, you’ll find both this book and its companion,The Earliest Commando Knives, to be very inexpensive and useful references. Recommended.

Softcover, 74 pp.

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$9.95