The Legend Knives

Hunting Knives, Pocket Knives and knives - Fern Knives

folding knives	tactical knives	cutlery knives	blades knives
buck knives	damascus knives	schrade knives	spyderco knives

The earliest knives were shaped by knapping (percussive flaking) of rock, particularly harder rocks such as obsidian and flint. During the Paleolithic era Homo habilis likely made similar tools out of wood, bone, and similar 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. The first metal (copper) knives were symmetrical double edged daggers, which copied the earlier flint daggers. In Europe the first single edged knives appeared during the middle bronze age. Modern knives may be made from many different materials such as alloy tool steels, carbon fiber, ceramics, and titanium.

Today, knives come in many forms but can be generally categorized between two broad types: fixed blade knives and folding, or pocket, knives.

Characteristic parts of the knife

Modern knives consist of a blade (1) and handle (2). The blade edge can be plain or serrated or a combination of both. The handle, used to grip and manipulate the blade safely, may include the tang, a portion of the blade that extends into the handle. Knives are made with partial (extending part way into the handle, known as a "Stick Tang") and full (extending the full length of the handle, often visible on top and bottom) tangs. The handle can also include a bolster, which is a piece of material used to balance the knife, usually brass or other metal, at the front of the handle where it meets the blade. 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 ricasso (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, or a portion of the tang to protrude as a striking surface for pounding or glass breaking.

Types of knives

Knives as weapons

As a weapon, the knife is universally adopted as an essential tool. For example:

• Bayonet: A knife-shaped close-quarters fighting weapon designed to attach to the muzzle of a rifle or similar weapon
• Combat knife: Any knife intended to be used mainly for fighting
• Throwing knife: A knife designed and weighted for throwing
• Trench knife: Purpose-made or improvised knives, intended for close-quarter fighting, particularly in trench warfare characterised by a d-shaped integral hand guard.
• Shiv: A crudely made homemade knife out of everyday materials, especially prevalent in prisons among inmates. An alternate name in some prisons is Shank.

Knives as utensils

Table knives

A primary aspect of the knife as a tool includes dining, used either in food preparation or as cutlery. Examples of this include:

• Bread knife: A knife with a serrated blade for cutting bread
• Boning knife: A knife used for removing the bones of poultry, meat, and fish
• Carving knife: A knife for carving large cooked meats such as poultry, roasts, hams
• Chef's knife: Also known as a French knife, a cutting tool used in preparing food
• Electric knife: An electrical device consisting of two serrated blades that are clipped together, providing a sawing action when powered on
• Kitchen knife: Any knife, including the chef's knife, that is intended to be used in food preparation
• Table knife or Case knife: A piece of cutlery, either a butter knife, steak knife, or both, that is part of a table setting, accompanying the fork and spoon
• Ulu: An Inuit woman's all-purpose knife