Fascine knife

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prussian fascine knife with saw back from 1810

The Faschinenmesser (from ital. Faschine - fagot) is a breitklingiges slashing knife long, usually with 50 to 60 centimeters, straight blade, the last quarter of the 18th century to the early 20th century by the military in Europe in many Military Branches was used. Often a mixture of tools and weapons, it was used by pioneers in the construction of military objects. The knife was originally used to cut off whips (twigs and branches about one centimeter thick, hazelnut branches were mostly used) to make bundles of brushwood for building bulwarks and shelters. Often, was blade with a serrated edge is provided - on the one hand, to be able to cut up to larger branches, but mainly to fibrous materials, for example, straps to sever.

French fascine knife (Saber de troupes a pied Mle 1831) by Talabot from 1832

In German usage, a distinction is usually made between infantry, artillery and pioneer fascine knives. The differences lie in the length and width of the blade. The infantry mostly used the lighter ones and the pioneers the heavier ones. In addition to the knife shape, fascine knives can also have the shape of bayonets or short swords . Some of these weapons, for example the short sword of the French army from 1831 (picture left), had more of the character of a side defense and were also used by the soldier with a mountable bayonet (spout or socket bayonet).

In the field of hunting, edged weapons with a similar function are used under the names Praxe or Standhauer. These were used during the hunt to clear the hunter's stand and his field of fire of vegetation. This function is fulfilled today by the more versatile woad leaf .

literature

  • Gerhard Seifert: Technical terms of edged weapons. German ABC of the European naked defensive weapons. (Cut, thrust, hit and hand thrown weapons). Verlag Seifert, Haig 1981.
  • Gerhard Seifert: Introduction to Edged Weapons. Based on the European bare defensive weapons. Publisher Seifert, Haig 1982.
  • Rolf Selzer: The early royal Saxon infantry fascine knife M / 1845. 2006, online (PDF; 515 kB) .
  • Rolf Selzer: The ducal-Braunschweigic fascine knife from 1853. 2006, online (PDF; 548 kB) .
  • Rolf Selzer: The French fascine knife Mle 1831 in the Prussian army. 2006, online (PDF; 442 kB)
  • Rolf Selzer: The Hanoverian "Prussian style pioneer sword". Online (PDF; 185 kB)
  • More articles on German fascine knives on the same website seitengewehr.de

Web links

Commons : Fascine Knife  - Collection of Images