THE MAN'S KNIFE AMONG THE NORTH AMERICAN IN- 

 I)IAXS-A STUDY IN THE COLLECTIONS OF THE U. S. 

 NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



By Otis Tufton IvrASON, 

 Curator, JHrmon of Etlinolo<iii. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Among implements used by man, the same forms may sometimes be 

 employed for destruction and at other times for industrial purposes. 

 When used for destruction they are weapons, but when their function 

 is industrial they are tools. The same object, when used as a weapon, 

 becomes a dagger, but if it be employed as an edged tool it is a knife. 

 As in the case of all other weapons or tools, the edged tool works by 

 pressure, by friction, or by a blow. One used by means of a blow is an 

 ax if the edge is in a line with the handle, and an adz if it lies across 

 the handle; an edged tool working by friction is a scraper, but one 

 working by j^ressure is a knife. 



It will be found iu the study of industrial knives that in the long run 

 they become the carver's and engraver's tools, the drawing knife, the 

 spokeshave, the plane, and the planiug mill. In some styles of the last 

 named, however, the operative part of the machine is, more i^roperly 

 speaking, a machine adz than a knife. Carving in wood and other sub- 

 stances by the American aborigines differentiated the adz from the 

 knife. It is probable that before the introduction of iron into America 

 the adz was used more than the knife in dressing down wood; but 

 when the iron blade came into vogue it was possible for the savage 

 workman to carve out hollow dishes and boxes, and other objects with 

 his knife by simple pressure. Kotable exceptions to this are those 

 regions where soft wood came into alliance with sharks' teeth and the 

 incisors of rodents. This is shown in all the curved knives of the 

 collections in the U. S. National Museum from the two hemispheres, 



especially those from wooded areas. 



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