Few knives are as immediately recognizable as the push dagger. Instead of placing the blade in line with the handle like a conventional fixed blade, the push dagger turns the relationship ninety degrees. Its handle rests across the palm while the blade projects through the closed fist, usually between the fingers. The arrangement created a remarkably compact knife that could be held securely without the wrist position required by a conventional dagger. Known at various times as the push dagger, punch dagger, push knife, push dirk, fist knife, and gimlet knife, the pattern became particularly associated with personal protection, gambling halls, crowded American cities, trench warfare, and eventually the modern tactical knife market.

The familiar T-handled push dagger began appearing as a distinct weapon in the United States during the nineteenth century. Push daggers fit neatly into an American culture in which a remarkable variety of compact weapons competed for space in coat pockets, waistcoats, boots, and belts. Bowie knives, dirks, percussion pistols, pepperboxes, small revolvers, sword canes, brass knuckles, and other defensive weapons were all available, but few knives could be made as compact while still providing such a secure grip.

The design became particularly associated with the American South and the busy commercial cities connected by river and sea. New Orleans developed one of the best-known regional versions. There, the weapon became known as the "gimlet knife," a name derived from its resemblance to the traditional T-handled gimlet used for boring holes. Surviving descriptions generally portray the New Orleans form as small, often with a blade of only a few inches. The compact shape disappeared into clothing much more easily than a large Bowie knife. By 1879, New Orleans had enacted increasingly restrictive weapons ordinances, and the gimlet knife had gained enough notoriety that its sale was specifically restricted. Other New Orleans ordinances from the same year prohibited dangerous weapons in theaters, taverns, public halls, and other entertainment spaces, in a broader effort to control weapons in the city's crowded social settings.

The pattern was not confined just to the United States, though. During the second half of the nineteenth century, similar knives appeared in Britain and continental Europe. German-speaking regions knew perpendicular-handled knives under terms including Stoßdolch, roughly meaning thrust or push dagger, and Faustmesser, or fist knife. European examples varied considerably, with some remaining close to the short American T-handled dagger, while others blurred the line between fighting knife and specialized working knife. The broader German term Faustmesser eventually came to include other knives with blades mounted perpendicular to the handle, including hunting and skinning knives.

By the end of the nineteenth century, however, the push dagger was losing some of the civilian niche that had helped make it popular. Small firearms had improved dramatically. Compact cartridge revolvers and pocket pistols were more reliable, easier to obtain, and increasingly practical as concealed defensive weapons. At the same time, cities and states were paying greater attention to the carrying of concealed knives and other weapons.

When the First World War settled into trench warfare, soldiers encountered conditions for which many conventional military weapons were poorly suited. Rifles and fixed bayonets were essential in open fighting, but the narrow confines of a trench could turn combat into a struggle at arm's length. Soldiers carried or improvised clubs, shortened knives, sharpened tools, bayonets, and numerous other close-combat weapons. Some were made in unit workshops or adapted from whatever material was available. Others were commercially manufactured and purchased privately by soldiers before going to the front.

World War I changed the push dagger's reputation, though. Trench warfare placed it alongside the purpose-built fighting knives of modern armies. At the same time, the war encouraged the development of other compact fighting knives, particularly knuckle knives and short conventional daggers. Those competing designs eventually proved easier to adapt to formal military training and standardized issue. While the push dagger remained effective within its narrow role, the very geometry that made it distinctive also limited its versatility compared with a conventional knife.

The pattern nevertheless survived into the Second World War. Specialized British units relied heavily on compact fighting knives, although the conventional dagger layout of the Fairbairn-Sykes became far more famous and widely associated with the Commandos. Push daggers and other unusual knives continued to appear among special operations personnel, with some First World War weapons simply brought back into service. An especially interesting example survives in the Imperial War Museums collection. A Robbins of Dudley punch dagger originally produced during the First World War was later carried by Sergeant Kenneth Phillott of No. 4 Commando and Headquarters Company, 1st Commando Brigade. Phillott served during operations including the Lofoten raid, Dieppe, and the 1944-45 campaign in northwestern Europe.

After World War II, the push dagger again became a relatively uncommon pattern. Conventional hunting knives, military-style fixed blades, and increasingly sophisticated folding knives dominated much of the American sporting and commercial knife market. The push dagger's specialized shape gave it relatively little usefulness for ordinary cutting chores. Unlike a conventional fixed blade, its edge is positioned awkwardly for carving, food preparation, long slicing cuts, and many other everyday tasks. Its original purpose was unusually narrow, and without wartime demand or the nineteenth-century culture of concealed defensive knives, most buyers had little reason to choose one.

More than two centuries after the recognizable American form began appearing, the push dagger remains an unusually specialized knife. It never evolved into a general-purpose pattern because its geometry was never designed to do that. Instead, different periods repeatedly rediscovered the same compact arrangement whenever concealment and a secure closed-fist grip were more important than ordinary cutting versatility. Nineteenth-century San Francisco examples, World War II Commando weapons, and modern production push knives can look dramatically different from one another, yet the relationship between hand and blade has barely changed.