Blade shapes

[krakenten]

We often get confused by the various blade shapes.
I've been mollucking about with knives for fifty years, and done a lot of research, so here's what I know about blade shapes for switches.
The dagger blade is a diamond grind, that long swedge is not a false edge, a false edge is actually sharp,something that many swords and daggers had to make them better stabbers, and effective on the backswing.
The half grind harks back to a knife called an Estradoit, or eared dagger.
Estradoits were Levantine mercenaries who served the Republic of Venice, and they favored this knife-it had a rather crude, unequal grind, and were not smoothed out, many specimens have exquisite hilts of precious metal, but the rough blade was a convention.
They had a pommel resembling a pair of sea shells, hence, 'eared'.
The bayonet blade is a convoluted tale.
The origin of the US bayonet it resembles was in the M3 Trench Knife, in turn inspired by the German combat knife-the only military knife of this type the US had at the beginning of WWII was the knuckleduster trench knife, which required too much bronze, and was a Hell of a weapon, but otherwise pretty awkward for utility use.
The knife was modified to use as a bayonet for the M 1 carbine, but remained designated as a knife-bayonet, to this day-several models were made, to fit the M1 rifle, M14 and M16, and perhaps should be referred to as a dirk pattern.
Dirks often had a swedge or false edge, because many were made from the broken foibles of backswords, Scotland being poor in iron, and not noted for good smithy work.
The kris blade is a complete misnomer.
Kris(the word is both singular and plural) are more often straight than wavy, with a few single edged specimens showing a single, compound curve.
The European blade of this type is called Flamboyant(flaming), it has a long history, having been used on two handed swords, rapiers and daggers of all sorts.
These blades are good cutters, the wavy shape gives a much longer edge, straight lines being the shortest distance between two points.
The standard, flat grind, known in both drop point and clip point configurations(clip point, or zuava blades appear on manual knives, as a rule, perhaps because they would be easier to open by hand, the nick appearing well above the grip.)
Truth to tell, the drop point shape has a resemblance to surgical insturments, like the post-mortem knife, from days gone by-the knife attributed to Jack The Ripper greatly resembles a six inch, standard grind blade.
Now, guys, make me wiser?