A push dagger is a short-bladed dagger

Dagger

A dagger is a fighting knife with a sharp point designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon. The design dates to human prehistory, and daggers have been used throughout human experience to the modern day in close combat confrontations...

 with a "T" handle designed to be grasped in the hand so that the blade protrudes from the front of one's fist, typically between the 2nd and 3rd finger. Over the centuries, the push dagger has gone up and down in popularity as a close-combat

Close combat

*Close combat is a generic term for both Close Quarters Battle and Hand to hand combat.*Mêlée generally refers to disorganized close combat.*CQB is an acronym for Close Quarters Battle, such as that which occurs in urban warfare....

 weapon for civilians and selected military forces.

History

The push dagger is thought to have originated from the Indian subcontinent, and is related in principle to the 16th-century Indian katara (कटार), or punching sword. However, the katara is gripped by two close-set vertical bars, while a push dagger uses a T-handle and a blade that protrudes between the fingers when properly gripped.

The American push dagger

In 1800s America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 the knife was adopted by men and women in all walks of life as a defensive weapon and an item of daily wear. Politicians wore them into state and federal buildings, even the United States Capitol. As a concealable weapon, the push dagger was a favorite choice of civilian owners requiring a discreet knife capable of being used for personal protection. Before the development of reliable small pistols such as the derringer

Derringer

The term derringer is a genericized misspelling of the last name of Henry Deringer, a famous 19th-century maker of small pocket pistols. Many copies of the original Philadelphia Deringer pistol were made by other gun makers worldwide, and the name was often misspelled; this misspelling soon became...

, the push dagger was especially popular among riverboat gamblers and residents of the larger towns and cities of the Old Southwest

Old Southwest

The Old Southwest is a term used to refer to the area of the United States west of the Appalachians and south of the Ohio which were settled in the early nineteenth century, especially the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas...

, particularly gamblers and émigré

Émigré

Émigré is a French term that literally refers to a person who has "migrated out", but often carries a connotation of politico-social self-exile....

s from the city of New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...

.

The New Orleans-style push dagger was known as the gimlet knife. The gimlet knife had a short two-inch (50mm) blade with a "gimlet" or T-handle. It was a common weapon in the city during the 1800s, and was usually slipped into a boot or concealed inside a coat sleeve, or else hung on a waistcoat button by a strap attached to the knife's leather sheath. The gimlet knife was used in so many riots, fights, and murders in New Orleans that the city passed a ordinance in 1879 prohibiting anyone within city limits from selling, offering or exhibiting such a weapon for sale.

The push dagger also was also a favorite weapon in 19th-century San Francisco, California

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

. The San Francisco style of push dagger tended to have a slightly longer blade than that of the gimlet knife, and was most often equipped with a T-handle made of walrus ivory.

The Stoßdolch

During the latter half of the 19th century, the push dagger also enjoyed a brief period of popularity in Britain and Central Europe, particularly in Germany, where it was called the Stoßdolch or Faustmesser. The weapon is thought to have been introduced there in the mid-1800s by foreign sailors visiting North German ports. German cutlery makers began to manufacture domestic versions of the design, often set in nickle-silver

Nickel silver

Nickel silver, also known as German silver, Argentann, new silver, nickel brass, albata,, or alpacca, is a copper alloy with nickel and often zinc. The usual formulation is 60% copper, 20% nickel and 20% zinc. Nickel silver is named for its silvery appearance, but it contains no elemental silver...

 mountings. The Stoßdolch was sold primarily as a self-defense weapon for travelers, salesmen, and others who required a compact, concealable weapon. Push daggers continued to be sold in Britain and Europe through the end of the 19th century, when the combination of more effective police forces and the availability of inexpensive small handguns caused a substantial decline in sales and usage of push daggers and other types of specialized fighting knives.

World War I

The reality of static trench warfare in World War I created a need for short, handy close-combat weapons that could be used in the confines of a trench. With pistols in short supply, a variety of knives and other stabbing weapons were created or issued to troops serving in the trenches. Originally most of these weapons were fabricated in the field from readily available materials such as barbed wire stakes, but soon factory-made examples of knuckle knives and push daggers appeared at the front, and were used by both sides in the conflict. In Britain the Robbins-Dudley Co. of Dudley, Worcestershire, a metalworking concern, was one of the first commercial producers of specialized wartime knuckle-knives and push daggers for private sale to individual soldiers and officers. The typical Robbins-Dudley push dagger – referred to as a 'punch knife' by its maker – utilized an aluminum 'knuckle'-type handle cast onto a 3.625-in. (93 mm) heat-treated steel dagger blade or alternatively, a 5-in. (127 mm ) metal spike, which was subsequently blackened to prevent reflections in moonlight.

World War II

The push dagger re-emerged during World War II, where it was first issued as combat weapon for British commando

British Commandos

The British Commandos were formed during the Second World War in June 1940, following a request from the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, for a force that could carry out raids against German-occupied Europe...

s, SAS

Special Air Service

Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...

, SOE

Special Operations Executive

The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...

, and other specialized raiding or guerrilla forces requiring a compact and concealable weapon for sentry elimination or close-quarters fighting.

Contemporary Designs

During the 1980s several new versions of the push dagger concept were produced by a variety of speciality cutlery manufacturers, and were sold primarily as 'tactical' or self-defense weapons, particularly in the USA. The laws of many nations and several U.S. states and cities prohibit or criminalize to some degree the purchase, possession, or sale of push daggers or knuckle knives.