Knives, Swords & Blades

A knife is a sharp-edged (single or double edged) instrument consisting of a thin blade used for cutting and fitted with a handle. The knife can be used as a tool or a weapon. more...

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Considered by some to be one of the most useful tools of all time, its origins date as far back as two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Olduwan tools. Knives can be sharp or blunt. Blunt knives are not so good for cutting but can be used for spreading things like jam on bread.

History

The earliest knives were shaped by percussion flaking from rock, particularly water-worn creek cobbles made out of volcanic rock. During the Paleolithic era Homo habilis likely made similar tools out of wood, bone, and similar highly perishable materials that have not survived. As recent as five thousand years ago, as advances in metallurgy progressed, stone, wood, and bone blades were gradually succeeded by copper, bronze, iron, and eventually steel. Modern knives may be made from many different materials such as carbon fiber, ceramics, and titanium. Knives gained prominence during the Middle Ages as one of the three major items of cutlery in the western world, accompanying the fork and spoon, and in this way much of the world's population is exposed to knives on a daily basis. There is a very active community of modern custom knife makers and collectors. The American Bladesmith Society promotes forged blades; the Knifemakers Guild promotes all custom knives.

Materials and construction

Today, knives come in many forms but can be categorized between two different types: fixed blade knives and folding, or pocket, knives. Although each has inherent advantages, the two have many similar characteristics.

Modern knives consist of a blade (1) and handle (2). The blade can be fine or serrated. The handle, used to grip and manipulate the blade safely, may include the tang, a portion of the blade that extends into the handle. The blade consists of the point (3), the end of the knife used for piercing, the edge (4), the cutting surface of the knife extending from the point to the heel, the grind (5), the cross-section shape of the blade, the spine, (6), the top, thicker portion of the blade, the fuller (7), the groove added to lighten the blade, and the bolster (8), the thick portion of the blade joining the blade and the handle. The guard (9) is a barrier between the blade and the handle which protects the hand from an opponent, or the blade of the knife itself. A choil, where the blade is unsharpened and possibly indented as it meets the handle, may be used to prevent scratches to the handle when sharpening or as a forward-finger grip. The end of the handle, or butt (10), may allow a lanyard (11), used to secure the knife to the wrist.

Read more at Wikipedia.org