My New DIY "FS" Knife"

[brihacharan]

My new DIY FS Knife!
Way back in 1965, when I was scourging the pawn shops at Paddington – London, I saw an FS knife that pumped up my adrenalin! After a little haggling with the owner, I walked away on cloud 9 holding my new acquisition that had set me back, by 3 pounds & ten shillings!

Even to this day, this beauty enjoys a pride of place among my small collection of blades!

My recent foray into DYI blade making kindled an urge to replicate it, which I shared with fellow IFGian KSHITIJ. As luck would have it, he was gracious enough to provide me with a couple of blanks. This was almost 3 months ago and since then, a lot of elbow grease, time, patience & perseverance went into creating a replica, which turned out to be ’rubbing shoulders’ with the original one!

GETTING THE PROFILE
This was a challenge, especially to get an even & precise slope to the blade. Using an angle grinder successively with 60, 80 & 120 grit discs, I managed a near perfect contour. However for the final finish, I had to resort to a DREMEL mounted with 120 grit sleeves running at 15,000 rpm. The final polishing was done with a felt buffing disc, using moistened ‘Talcum Powder’ as the polishing compound. This was an ‘out of box idea’ as talc is a micro-fined powder, made out of soap stone that worked well without leaving any scratch marks on the blade!

HANDLE
As this required a lathe, I had to resort to the mercy of a friendly neighborhood machinist, who fortunately turned out an excellent job as per my design & instructions. In fact I slightly altered the profile to give it a ‘heft’ & ‘ergonomics’. The material used is Jindal high grade aluminum.

FINGER GUARD
2.5mm brass strips served the purpose well which were cut to shape, contoured, drilled & notched to accommodate the rat tail tang.

FINAL ASSEMBLY
The handles were anodized jet black (an alternate was to powder coat, but then it’s unlikely to withstand any scuffing / scratching during handling). With all the parts ready I used M-Seal in putting together…
My First DIY FS Knife!!!

• Blade: Carbon steel 75CR1
• Handle: Jindal Hi-impact Aluminum / Black anodized
• Finger guard: Brass
• Overall length: 11”
• Blade length: 6.5”





# A comparison - Left is the Original & Right is my humble effort!

Briha

[chicky]

That's a beaut ...quite a hobby you have and of course the skill to go with it.

[essdee1972]

Having had the opportunity to handle this beauty, all I can say is....... those two old guys Fairbairn and Sykes will be throwing a party in Valhalla today, they have finally got a worthy successor!

[kshitij]

Brilliantly done brihaji! Everything from the surface finish of the blade to the machining of the handle and fitting of all the components look to be perfectly executed.
To be honest, since I gave the blanks about 3 months back and never heard any thing about it there after, i assumed you had forgotten about this project. I couldn't have been more wrong
I can imagine that getting the bevels symmetrical on either side while hand grinding it must have been an extremely difficult task.
The groove on the brass finger guard is a nice detail to make the blade sit flush. Super!
In the comparison picture next to the original, your DIY looks more beautiful to my eyes

[brihacharan]

Chicky / Essdee / Kshitij,
Thank you guys for your words of appreciation!
Frankly I was a bit skeptical when I undertook this project, but somehow I took on this challenge as this 'Knife' was perhaps the only design that was yet to capture, the interest & imagination of DIY enthusiasts!!!
I am indebted to especially IFGians Pratik, AD, Essdee, Kshitij, Slingshot & Moin for inspiring me to attempt this task!
Briha

[aadhaulya]

Briha ji,

I have a proper workshop with a lot of tools and equipment in my back yard. But I could never learn the art of using the hand grinder properly.
You have created a master piece.
My next project is to visit Mumbai and learn the art from you.

Atul

[xl_target]

Brihaji, very impressive.
A very well done rendition of a classic blade.

[ckkalyan]

That is indeed a beautiful reproduction of the legendary British Commando Dagger brihacharan-Ji! Tons of patience and skill have gone into your creation!

Check this site out The Fairbairn Sykes Fighting Knives

This site is dedicated to exploring the history of the iconic Fairbairn~Sykes Fighting Knife (commonly known as the British Commando knife), the many variants of that weapon, and the brave men and women who trained with it, carried it, and whose valor made it famous.

A Couple of Nice India-made Daggers Below: Thanks to the sale of some knives on my sales page we have finally put together enough money to pay for these two Indian made knives. A couple new additions to our collection. Top is an "I" third pattern and bottom is a rare Indian-made second pattern knife.

To my mind, FS stands for many things that are attributes of this gorgeous blade, amongst which a few are: Fighting Steel, Fairly Simple, Ferociously Sharp, Flash Stealth, Fine Steel...I am sure our knife lovers will come up with more such Fun FS's

[StormTruppen]

Fight's Sake


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[Guest]

8-) that's a true beauty,both original and the replica..
Beautiful work....

Sent from my E6553

[marksman_dd]

that's a true beauty,both original and the replica..
Beautiful work....

Sent from my E6553

[Big Daddy]

That is one nice workmanship with love written all over.
BD

[astronomy.domaine]

WOW!!
Briha sir can take us to school any day!
congrats for recreating this piece of history with such precision..!
Really like the tweaks on the guard and handle, they add on to the beauty..

BTW: If I am not wrong, its the Mark-III pattern of FS knives issued to the brit army?

[brihacharan]

WOW!!
Briha sir can take us to school any day!
congrats for recreating this piece of history with such precision..!
Really like the tweaks on the guard and handle, they add on to the beauty..

BTW: If I am not wrong, its the Mark-III pattern of FS knives issued to the brit army?

Thanks AD for your appreciation!
Yes! You're right - its indeed the Mark III pattern!
Briha

[SMJ]

That's an excellent recreation of the original Brihaji