Knives / daggers

Historians and archeologists consider the dagger the oldest thrusting weapon. Daggers were already  part of the standard military equipment of Romans. Yet, it was not before the 13^th century that it became part of the chivalrous set of arms. It is important to distinguish the dagger from the very common European “daggerknife” – a true dagger’s blade was symmetrical with two sharpened edges. Every country had its own unique shape of daggers, for example the oriental curved dagger, the Switzerdagger etc.

Mostly, daggers were crafted according to the shape of swords, thus it can be explained why the German term “Degen”, originally referring to the very long daggers of the 15^th century infantry, was applied to the epee later on.