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, CLANDESTINE EDGED WEAPONS and THE EARLIEST COMMANDO KNIVES.
The Earliest Commando Knives compiles all of Windrum’s KNIFE WORLD articles on commando knives into a convenient and inexpensive volume, something that everyone who enjoyed them the first time around should find most useful. It consists of six articles: “The Earliest Commando Knives”, “The Shanghai Fighting Knife”, “The Evolution of the F-S Fighting Knife”, “Rare F-S Fighting Knife Variants”, “F-S Knives Developed by Other Commonwealth Countries”, and “F-S Knives with Wooden Grips”. 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.
It should be noted that each of the six articles in The Earliest Commando Knives have previously been published in 2001’s Military Knives: A Reference Book. There’s a trade-off here: MK:ARB is a tad more expensive ($17.95), but contains larger photographs and a total of 67 articles on all aspects of military knives. The Earliest Commando Knives is much smaller but less expensive, with a few additional photos thrown in for good measure. Diehard military knife collectors will want to own both, of course.
In short, you’ll find both this book and its companion, Clandestine Edged Weapons, to be very inexpensive and useful references. Recommended.

Softcover, 80 pp.

Availability: Usually ships the next business day.

$9.95