Swedish Military knives.

Swedish Fighting knives - Field knives

picture by O. Janson

This webside is dedicated to my son.

My special regards to Per Holmback,
who has supported this article with facts and some pictures about the rare Swedish Field knives.

Swedish fighting knives - Field knives

picture by O. Janson

Sweden has a long tradition of making knives. The most commonly used knives used in the Swedish forces are the ordinary Mora knives.

The Mora knife is a traditional knife normally made from laminated carbon steel with a single edge.
It is still used by the armed forces and it is used as Utility knife for all types of purposes.

These are some ordinary knives from Mora used by the Military. Note the acceptance mark - three crowns.
 

• Long Military Mora

• Two Medium Mora for Medics

• The three knives to the right are the same length 215 mm with different colours and scabbards.

• In the bottom you can see the old military Pilot rescue knife from Mora (read more below)

 Private collection

Above:

1. Long Military Mora knife with 3 crowns both on the knife & scabbard length over all with scabbard 245 mm Made by Mora knivfabrik

2. Medium Mora for Medics length over all 215 mm Producer Unknown.

Same medium as above but new in plastic wrapping with military marked:
M6310-001000-2 / slidkniv 215 mm  and a And a separate label with 84 which was the year of checking made in the depot by the military personal.

Carl Andersson (CA) which was sold 1961 to KJ Eriksson

KJ Eriksson, founded 1912

Frosts AB, founded 1891

Nowadays MORA OF SWEDEN.

Since 2005 KJ Eriksson bought the shares of Frosts AB and became one single company called Mora of Sweden AB although the logotype “Frosts” will still appear in the future on some knives.

Military knives can be devided into diffrent categories. Any knife can be used for knife fighting to kill an enemy, but to be suitable for fighting the knife should have double edges at least for the part called false edge.

According to the well known collector former military Hutte Benckert, who passed away some years ago, there was even thoughts about using this knife as a fighting knife. As you can note there is no cross guard for the knife and he managed to dismiss the idea. Different trials were made. As a curiosity one can mention that the French knife from the Great war “Le vengeur de 1870” (The avenger of 1870) was among those knives tested.

The knife was never really accepted as a fighting knife in Sweden. There are not many reports about knife fighting techniques in the Swedish army.

Capt. Arne Larsson at  infantry regiment I17 used one of these Mora daggers as a field knife during the middle of the 1950s.  
Private collection

The first fighting knife for the Swedish Forces

FM/52J

1952 there was a demand for a fighting knife for the airborne forces.

The first Swedish fighting knife was called FM/52J.

It was produced by Pontus Holmberg in Eskilstuna.

Pictures Ingemar Karlmark

It was a very simple construction:

Grip - A wooden grip from birch covered by a red rubber sleeve like for a handle for a bicycle.

The scabbard was made of leather like for a hunting knife

The crossguard was made from thin brass and marked with 1952 and P.H. (for Pontus Holmberg in Eskilstuna).

The crossguard was marked with FM/52J
and 3 Crowns.

Here below is a page from one of the rare instruction manuals from 1956.
Note that the knife is a wooden knife and how it is hold. The "enemy soldier" uses a Swedish automatic rifle "Ljungman" Ag/42B

and Fairbairn-Sykes system.

by Col. Rex Applegate.

The mother of the the Swedish Field knives - US M3 Fighting knife

The demand for a fighting knife in USA became apparent with the use of the submachine guns.  There were many soldiers missed the bayonets of the rifles and for this reason they needed a knife.

Typical for the M3 is the rather thin blade. A wide blade will consume a lot of iron and be expensive to produce at large numbers. The M3 is a simple construction very much like the MARINE Corps knife. The M3 had a carbon steel blade, leather stacked washer handle, full steel cross guard. The guard was made of thick steel and angled at the top as a thumb rest. The blade was parkerized and 6 ¾ inches long and the overall length was 11 ½ inches. It had a single sharp edge with about one third of the false edge sharpened.

The M3 trench knife was officially standardized on January 14, 1943. It was only made for 17 months and the amazing production was 2 590 247 knives!

Length over all

Length of the blade

Thickness of the blade

Wheight

Now the main development of fighting knives was overtaken by a factory in Eskilstuna by the name of Erik Anton Berg AB (EAB). 1954 some test models were by this factory. There are reports with different types of handles. Some were welded to the tong while some were fixed with rivets.

Sweden called this type of fighting knife "Field knife" (faeltkniv).

Pictures from Per Holmback

 1956 there was another model brought out for testing called fm/56. It was also produced by E. A. Berg.

Swedish fighting knife - Field knife FM56
Picture Private collection

 Pictures Private collection  

Here is the flat recessed pommel nut,
which holds the handle and the tang together.

Picture O. Janson

The Field knife FM64.

The last knife in these series of test was called fm/64. 
In some respects they reminds about the early Colt M7 bayonets.

It looks exactly the same from the side as fm/56.
 

Above Top - FM/56
Above Bottom - FM/64

The only differences between fm/56 (left) and fm/64 (right) are the markings and the pommel nut, which locks on to the tang.

The integral pommel of the fm/64 is a better design. 

Note the three crowns for Sweden.

Picture Private collection

The end result was the Swedish fighting knife test model 1964 which you can see here.

Picture Private collection

The Shark - the logotype of the Swedish company -  E A Berg AB in Eskilstuna. E.A.B. was bought by Bacho in 1959.

64 for the model and the three crowns for Sweden.

Picture Private collection

Length over all

Length of the blade

Thickness of the blade

Wheight

I

Top Swedish FM 64 scabbard wood imitation, Middle Swedish FM65 scabbard, Bottom U.S. M8 scabbard

First Sweden bought the M8 scabbard from USA for the Field knives. The marking M8 was normally just covered by heavy green paint! When the FM64 was introduced it appeared with the same type of scabbard but now it was brown made of wood imitation.

This significant type of scabbard still remains in the army with the bayonet 1965 scabbard.

In some respects the Swedish Field knives reminds about the early Colt M7 bayonets.

You can see one of these below.   (Picture from Per Holmback)

Picture Private collection

From left to right:

1. Swedish bayonet model1965
2. US M4 bayonet
3. Swedish fighting knife model1964
4. US M3 fighting knife.

It is clear that the influence came for the Swedish knives came from USA.

The M3 and the Swedish field knives are very much looking alike.

These fighting knives and bayonets are all using the same type of blade.

1965 Sweden started to produce a new assault rifle H&K G3 called Ak4. It was equipped with a bayonet made by the Swedish company Bacho. Even this bayonet has a blade and scabbard which resembles the M3 and all other US modern bayonets up to US M7.

The specifications for the blade are identical with the field knife 64

The bayonet for Ak4 is nowadays used by all special forces in Sweden as fighting knife. It can be seen here used by KFOR military in Kosovo. The soldiers on the picture were trained as commandos in Sweden.

Note the obvious similarity of this scabbard compared to the U.S. M8 scabbard shown before  in this article..

(Private collection)

Please note
The Swedish acceptance mark - three crowns.

Length over all

Length of the blade

Thickness of the blade

The Swedish troops are often equipped with ordinary knives like the “Mora” or at the beginning of this article. Some models are preferred and have acceptance marks. Since 1970s this is a Model-number like M6310-xxxxxx. M6310 tells us that it is a knife.

BACHO made another knife around 1970 which was accepted and used by the military. It became popular with artillery and some other units during this period because it was more versatile because of its wide blade, which made it suitable for using it for cutting and chopping.

The Bacho survival / hunting knife

The Bacho survival / hunting knife is made from stainless steel and a grip made from welded plastic. The scabbard is made from the same material. On the backside of the scabbard there is a honing stone. The scabbard has a steel wire clip for attachment to i.e. a boot. The scabbard is open in both ends to let all snow and humidity pass through.

(Private collection)

Above A1

It is free for the Swedish soldier to use any type of knife as long as it is not "to offensive".

Length over all

Length of the blade

Thickness of the blade

Wheight

Pilots in the Swedish Air force used this type of knives.
It is a traditional "Mora" knife (from Frosts AB) with a half cross guard.

This is a late issue of this type. Later on the air force changed for the F1 type which you can see below to the left.

(Private collection)

Fällkniven also produces a survival knife, which was accepted 1995, for all the pilots in the Swedish air force,  and it is called F1.

Above is the pilot survival knife F1 knife M6310-006010 with separate sheath No M6310-006019
(Private collection)

Length over all

Length of the blade

Thickness of the blade

Wheight

EKA folding knife

Some of the mechanical army brigades has this folding knife from EKA in Eskilstuna.
 

The folded EKA knife

(Private collection)

The folding EKA knife

Multipurpose Leatherman Crunch

This multipurpose Leatherman Crunch has been used by the Swedish KFOR in Kosovo.

Length: 4 in. / 10 cm closed
              5.5 in. / 14 cm open
Weight: 6 ounces / 170 grams
Materials: 100% stainless steel

(Engraved with name)

(Private collection)

Locking Pliers
Wire Cutters
Hard-Wire Cutters
Serrated Knife
Metal/Wood File
Ruler (Inch/Metric)
Bottle Opener
Small Screwdriver
Medium Screwdriver
Large Screwdriver
Phillips Screwdriver (#1/#2)
Hex Bit Driver
Wire Stripper
Lanyard Attachment

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