Many fellow citizens have seen the Soviet knife of the NA-40 scout at least once. The most recognizable and highly characteristic feature of this bladed weapon is that it has a very specific S-shaped guard. It is quite obvious that this was done not for beauty. Does this form of a protective element really have any other functionality compared to the usual straight guard?
In fact, the S-shaped guard is found not only on the Soviet ON-40 alone. It has existed for more than a century. In the old days, in addition to knives, such a guard can be seen on broadswords, falchions, cleavers, sabers and many other bladed weapons. Initially, the purpose of the S-shaped guard was very simple and very obvious: to provide slightly better protection for the attacker's hand.
For some it will be a revelation, but getting a sharp thing on your fingers during a fight is very unpleasant. Losing your fingers is extremely painful. At the same time, the more modest the armor became, the larger and more complex the guard on the bladed melee weapon became. As a result, on combat weapons, the S-shaped gradually evolved into a D-shaped guard.
By the time of the 20th century, developed guards were a thing of the past, since edged weapons passed into the second and third plan, finally surrendering the leading positions in front of firearms. Protecting the fingers of a fighter with a blade was no longer so important, and therefore, in relation to knives, the S-shaped guard came in handy from a completely different side.
The thing is that the handle rest with this shape provides a more comfortable hand position for both grips: normal and reverse. The first grip is well known to everyone who at least once in his life cut sausage for himself into sandwiches. The second grip is most often used by the military for knife fighting. It is also used by the military for lethal top-down strikes, for example, to pierce the neck of an unsuspecting enemy. So in modern conditions, the S-shaped guard is needed only for greater convenience.
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This shape of the handle is found not only on Soviet knives. Similar blades were made in many countries. For example, the S-shaped guard is very common on Finnish military knives. However, even its use is optional. So in the United States since the First World War, they prefer mainly knives with a straight guard.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about why does a German machine gunner need there was a wooden backpack over his shoulders.
Source: https://novate.ru/blogs/231220/57205/
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