THE man's knife. 720 



upper side and plain on the under side, and more or less curved upward 

 at the outer end. The blades of commerce are not greatly different 

 in shape, but it will be seen that native ingenuity lias been able to 

 fashion blades from any piece of iron. Murdoch, speak in <>• of Point Bar- 

 row, says that "the carver's knife is not always carved in the blade.'" 



Those that are sold to the natives are mostly curved, and the han- 

 dles are added afterwards. Example Cat. No. SOl'Di in the U. .S. 

 National Museum from Point Barrow has a short, thick "jackknife" 

 blade much worn down. It is hafted between two longitudinal sec- 

 tions of reindeer antler held together by rivets, one section being cut 

 out to receive the tang. Two rivets are of iron and three of brass. 



The tang of the blade, which exists as an element in the hafting, 

 is usually a continuation thereof, without much finish, being a Hat 

 rectangle in outline. The foim of the tang, however, will be governed 

 by the method of its application to the handle, as will appear. It 

 maybe, first, pointed and driven into the end of the handle; second, 

 rectangular and laid between the halves of the handle; third, set into a 

 narrow groove on top of the handle; fourth, laid in a shallow groove on 

 the side of the handle; fifth, set in a saw cut in the end of the handle. 



Second, the handle or grip. This may be either of wood taken from 

 the forest or from wreckage, or of bone or antlei-. The woman's knife, 

 usually, has the grip attached to the back of the blade along its extent 

 and the blade in position is under the grip. But in the man's knife the 

 end of the blade forms the tang and the place of attachment for the 

 handle, and therefore the gri^) is cylindrical or partly so. In point of 

 fact the handle may be said to have three parts — the pommel or butt, 

 quite frequently ornamented, even in tools of savages; the grip or 

 portion actually in the hand, and the joint or hinge. The form of the 

 grip may be that of the natural piece of material. Woman's knife 

 handles are much more delicately fashioned to fit the fingers than are 

 those of the man's knife. But in the curved type the thumb is espe- 

 cially cared for, as giving leverage and guidance in whittling, and 

 in some examples a long extension of the handle enables the whittler 

 to call into activity every muscle of his forearm. The j)ortion of the 

 handle and the treatment of it with reference to the bond or connection 

 with the blade will be spoken of in the next paragraph. The modifica- 

 tions of the handle for the insertion of the working part involve the 

 selection of the grain, splitting one end, splitting the handle, drilling, 

 grooving, sawing, socketing, etc. 



Third, the bond or " connect! ve" between the blade and the grip — that 

 is, between the working part and the manual part. In the history of 

 tools these connective devices have had an interesting elaboration. 

 Practically, the bond between working part and manual part consists 

 of three elements: First, a modification in the blade corresponding to 

 the tang; second, a modification of the handle for the insertion of the 



John Murdoch, Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau ol" lOthiiology, p. 155,fig. 110. 



