SMGO-0841 Italian Fascist youth knife by G. Fugini GIL TRIESTE Marked!

These daggers were first introduced in 1936 for the 14-16 year old’s Avanguardisti and the 16-18 year old’s Giovani Fascisti with the 6.5″ blued blades stamped G.FUGINI BRESCIA and the knife is 10.5″ overall. The cross guard and pommel are blued steel and the hardwood grip is pinned onto the tang and stamped 0800 on the grip. There is no scabbard on this one and the blade shows an aggressive grind to make it sharp. The bluing is very nice where it is present. The grip is stamped GIL TRIESTE and is a rare to find mark on these knives.

The Gioventù Italiana del Littorio (GIL) (English: Italian Youth of the Lictor) was the consolidated youth movement of the National Fascist Party of Italy that was established in 1937,^[1] to replace the Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB). It was created to supervise and influence the minds of all youths, that was effectively directed against the influence of the Catholic Church on youths

Trieste is the capital city of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region in northeast Italy. A port city, it occupies a thin strip of land between the Adriatic coast and Slovenia’s border on the limestone-dominated Karst Plateau. Italian, Austro-Hungarian and Slovenian influences are all evident in its layout, which encompasses a medieval old city and a neoclassical Austrian quarter. ― Google