The Fairbairn-Sykes isn’t some mall ninja fantasy blade—it’s the real deal, a whispering ghost of war meant for men who got dropped behind enemy lines and didn’t ask for backup.

The Fairbairn-Sykes dagger has one purpose: to kill. Issued to British commandos, it has a thin, exceptionally sharp blade that will open an artery with a quick flick. That’s the story behind ...

Fairbairn and Sykes developed the knife in Shanghai, incidentally they never mentioned Shanghai at all at Inverailort, I didn’t discover they had come from Shanghai until years afterwards.