Fighting knife the Kukri, a broad-bladed, curved general-purpose cutting tool and weapon with Indian origins. In other countries the machete or Filipino Bolo were often used as fighting knives by indigenous military or paramilitary forces. Colonial powers that encountered these general-purpose weapons used as fighting knives during a military campaign occasionally adopted them in turn for use by their own military forces, as exemplified by the U.S. Army's Model 1910/17 "Bolo" brush-clearing knife, which would be later pressed into service as a fighting knife in both World Wars. In World War I, military use of the fighting knife saw the introduction of
Combat knife a trench knife, the "combat knife" was used by both sides on the Western front during World War I. Since then, combat knives have been issued by the armies of many nations. Though they differ in detail, they all share the common characteristic of being purposely designed for military use, with their primary role as a close-quarters combat weapon. During World War II, the British Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife was designed by William E. Fairbairn and Eric A. Sykes, two former members of the Shanghai Municipal Police who trained many soldiers in close-quarters fighting. The Fairbairn-Sykes knife inspired several similar knives