Over the past few days I've had the good fortune to be in contact with a gentleman that is helping me out with a little work project. 

As a result of this I had the opportunity to talk about and look through his wartime memorabilia.  Most prized amongst these - and believe me there was LOTS - was his wartime Smatchet that he had acquired at some point.

For those of you who don't know The Smatchet was the wartime fighting weapon designed by W.E. Fairbairn.  It is a fearsome weapon at close range.

This particular one seems to be from the earlier part of the war, and even though the handle has seen better times, the blade itself is still "good to go."

Thankfully I was allowed to have a 15 minute drill run through with it (although I could quite happily have spent the rest of the evening working with it!!).

Lots of good material and info, so looking forward to getting it all down on paper ready for a larger publication

So,there you are, the Smatchet.  Mr. Fairbairn certainly knew what he was doing when he designed this.