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Thefascine knife was aside arm /tool issued to 17th to 19th centurylight infantry andartillery. It served both as a personal weapon and as a tool for cuttingfascines (bundles of sticks used to strengthen the sides oftrenches or earthramparts protecting thebatteries).[1] It could be straight or curved, double edged or single edged with a sawtoothed back.
Seventeenth- and 18th-century German, Prussian and Swedish fascine knives were more like cavalry swords, often with a brass handle and a hand guard, but later models were more likebillhooks in shape and appearance. By the 20th century, it became the Pioneer's billhook in theBritish Army, used inWorld War I for making machine gun emplacements. In theIndian Army, it is known as a Knife Gabion (gabions, like fascines, are used for supporting earthworks).
Some types of fascine knife are probably descended from 16th century sidearms weapons like thebaselard or theSwiss sword. Others, known toBritish foot soldiers as a billhook, are more closely related to agricultural cutting tools.
Like the billhook they were used for cutting saplings (e.g. willow, hazel or chestnut) that were bundled up to make fascines or woven into hurdles, or gabions. Many revetments used a combination of all three, with fascines at the bottom of the trench, hurdles just below ground level and gabions above, filled with the earth from the trench.
Although theSpanish Army called its fascine knivesmachetes,[2] they bore little resemblance to the common cutting tool.[3][4]
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