The dirck (Italian Coltello) is a cold edged weapon with a straight, short or mid long (rarely curved) blade, which can be sharpened on one side or both sides. Its handguard usually corresponds to a cross which can be complemented with a fore bail.
Dircks appeared in the end of the sixteenth century - the beginning of the seventeenth century. At the beginning they were used as weapons of boarding fights. Later on dircks became part of navy uniforms. Then they were part of uniforms in the army, air and government units.
Today in the majority of European armies and navies dircks can still be found on the stock list of army regulations in regards of cold weapons. There is a tendency to give them as award and gift weapons because of their symbolic meaning of honor and valor. The tradition of giving gift dircks to people that have nothing to do with the military service has recovered and got implemented in personalized, family, and corporate weapons.
