The World Encyclopedia of Knives, Daggers & Bayonets

With a comprehensive and fully illustrated weapons directory, this book will be an indispensable resource for the amateur enthusiast and professional collector alike, while the beautiful photographs of these extraordinary pieces of craftsmanship will fascinate anyone with an interest in the weapons that have shaped the world.¿

The first weapons were invented around 500,000 years ago since when they have played an undeniably significant part in shaping human history. Cultures all over the world crafted fighting blades, many of them so elaborately formed and decorated that they were as much works of art and powerful symbols of status as they were weapons of war.

This beautifully presented book traces the fascinating history of daggers, dirks and bayonets through to the 21st century. From the appearance of the earliest stabbing tools of the so-named Dagger Period of 15,000 BC it describes the development of these short-edged weapons and their impact upon ancient civilizations such as the Etruscans, Egyptians and Romans. The significance of the dagger in the artistic culture of the Celtic peoples and the role of the scrimasax fighting knife as a Saxon weapon of conquest is also explored. The symbolism of the dagger as part of a knight's armoury is covered, and its importance as a civilian weapon during the Medieval and Renaissance periods as well as in 19th-century America. 

The book looks at the part played by fighting blades in military combat from the famous Highland dirk to 20th- century Commando knives, and traces the history of the transformation of the hand-held stabbing tool into the bayonets of World Wars I and II. This broad-ranging book examines the variety of short-edged weapons from around the world, from the Indian Katar to the Japanese Tanto. It looks at the technical and military accomplishments leading up to the present-day role of the short-edged blade as a military weapon, as well as its transformation into an object of modern art.