Long Knife

“ The men hardly had to be asked to surrender their knives. They gave them up voluntarily, so anxious were they to have their blades bright and sharp. The weapons were placed in a box that I had prepared for them. In order to delay matters I gave the grinder half a dozen cutlasses from my own cabin that were to be finished before the knives were ground. All day long, almost without a moment’s rest, the old knife-grinder tramped and sang as the rusty steel struck prickly stars from the whirring wheel. ”

“ I smiled at Pop and said, "Any other reasons?"
"Yep," he said. "Got to shave and I might as well do it in style. A new blade every day in the fortnight is twice as good as the old ads. You know, it makes you keep a knife in fine shape if you shave with it. What you got there, Ray?"
"You were wrong, Pop," I said. "He did have some metal on him that didn't melt."
I held up for them to see the object I'd extracted from his left fist: a bright steel cube measuring about an inch across each side, but it felt lighter than if it were solid metal. Five of the faces looked absolutely bare. ”

“ And it had been so simple, thought Nelson. He handed Glynnis the extra pack. "Take this." She accepted it wordlessly and slipped her arms into the straps. "Oh," he added, as an afterthought. "Let me show you something." He reached into the pack and drew out a knife. A good one with a long plasteel blade that would not chip or corrode like hers. He handed it to her and imagined her smiling face in the darkness.
"It doesn't feel like metal," she said, after she had taken the knife from its scabbard.
"It isn't. It's a kind of plastic, stronger than most metals. Do you like it?" ”

“ Meanwhile the girl had put on her boots, located her dart gun, unscrewed the pliers from her stump, put the knife in, and was arranging her scarf so it made a sling for the maimed arm—I wondered why but had no time to waste guessing, even if I'd wanted to, for at that moment a small dull silver plane, beetle-shaped more than anything else, loomed out of the haze beyond the cracking plant and came silently drifting down toward us. ”

“ The cane-knife, of which the negroes made use, is a formidable weapon, and does its work something after the fashion of a hatchet or short bill-hook. The handle is a square bar of steel an inch thick, and the blade, which is some two feet long, widens regularly out to a breadth of three inches at the end. In the grasp of a strong arm like that of Cinquè, it is as sure and deadly as the guillotine. ”

“ Every man carries at his left side a long, two-edged, sword-like knife. It is a splendid article, which they themselves manufacture. It is carried in a sheath of python-skin, suspended from a shoulder-strap of leopard-skin, though sometimes monkey-skin or goat-skin is substituted. The flint-lock gun had reached there long before our time; and every man had a gun which he carried all the time. ”

“ The knives are not often either very bright, or very sharp. They are indeed instruments of which the Highlanders have not been long acquainted with the general use. They were not regularly laid on the table, before the prohibition of arms, and the change of dress. Thirty years ago the Highlander wore his knife as a companion to his dirk or dagger, and when the company sat down to meat, the men who had knives, cut the flesh into small pieces for the women, who with their fingers conveyed it to their mouths. ”

“ GUN SLING. Cutlery.
Knives.
Tools.
Do not be induced to encumber yourself with one of those ornamented, highly polished, useless abominations popularly known as hunting knives; they are worse than useless, and only serve to exasperate the owner. For general rough and ready work, nothing is better than a strong well-made butcher’s knife. The blade should be continued through the handle, which is formed by pinning two cheeks of hard wood or horn together. The hand grip should be long, and the steel sufficiently soft to be cut by a common hand saw file ”

“ The Italians have long ago brought the use of the knife to a fine art, and even to-day, murders by stabbing are the most usual occurrences reported in their newspapers. The blade of this antique weapon was about nine inches long, and the handle velvet-covered and bound with wire, probably either gold or silver. The point was sharp as a needle.
My first impulse was to take possession of it; but, on reflection, I saw that if I did so grave suspicion might possibly fall upon me. I might even be charged with the murder, especially as I had already in my pocket the dead’s man stud and pencil-case. ”

“ Bloody Knife the Arikara chief scout could not understand what had happened to the Long Hair. Ned [268] watched him talking rapid sign language with Charley Reynolds; and afterward stalking away gloomy.
“Bloody Knife asks why the Long Hair doesn’t come and lead his warriors out. Too much fuss and wait, he says. The Sioux laugh and brag; and send in word from the hills: ‘Are the white soldiers tired before they start?’ ‘What is the matter with the Long Hair?’ ‘Is the Long Hair sick?’ And so forth. I tell Bloody Knife we have another big chief, named Terry, to lead us ”

“ These knives are usually about eighteen inches long, with a broad, sharp, murderous blade. The handles are of tortoise or ivory, often carved richly, or inlaid with figures of the Virgin, the Saviour, or the crucifix. The knife is kept open by a curious little wheel, between blade and handle, and is used indiscriminately, to slice a melon or lay bare a quarrelsome neighbor’s heart. ”

“ The cutting edge of the blade is beveled on one face only. This knife represents the general shape of knives of this sort, but is rather smaller than most of them. I have seen some knives with blades fully 5 or 6 inches long and deep in proportion. The handle is almost always of walrus ivory and of the shape figured. I do not remember ever seeing an úlu blade secured otherwise than by fitting it tightly into a narrow slit in the handle, except in one case, when the handle was part of the original handle of the saw of which the knife was made, left still riveted on. ”

“ Albert Way [100] has pointed out, to be too thin and fragile for any warlike purpose. Those with the cutting edge all round were probably provided with a sort of handle along one side, like the flensing-knife from Icy Cape in the possession of Sir Edward Belcher, of which mention has already been made. This is a flat thin blade, about 5 inches long, and of subquadrangular form. It is sharp at the edge, but has a guard or handle along the opposite side, made of split twigs attached by resinous gum. ”

“ On taking up these, each owner of the knives will imagine that his remains on the table and his neighbours’ are being used. Even if he suspected a substitution, that would not account for the trick.
Ingenious Variation.—One knife is laid on the cup with its handle outside to maintain the balance; a long knitting-needle, fastened to the knife-handle with a lump of sealing wax, while a leaden bullet at the other end and knife point serves as counterpoise. The glass table is used, and the Magician withdraws to a distance. All of a sudden though, the knife leaps off from the cup. ”

“ The socketed form of knife is hardly known upon the Continent, though, as will have been observed, it has occasionally been found in the North of France. Among the fragments of metal forming part of the deposit of an ancient bronze-founder, and discovered at Dreuil, near Amiens, I have the fragments of two such knives. I have also a fine and entire specimen, 91⁄4 inches long, from the bed of the Seine at Charenton, near Paris. There is a transverse rib at each end and in the middle of the socket, through the face of which are two rivet-holes. ”

“ To this end there are some good implements on the market: strong, well balanced and riveted to give good service. Knife blades for this work range from 5′′ to 14′′ in length and are in various styles.
[156]
The cleaver is a good thing to have should the butcher sometimes neglect to break a furtive bone. These come in pleasant weights and dimensions, the one with blade 6′′ long by 21⁄2′′ wide, weighing in all one pound.
In connection with knives for fruits and vegetables you will be interested in the story of the late product of steel which is so fast coming to the markets of the world. ”

“ Some import from Unyamwezi and the westward regions the long double-edged knife called sime, a “serviceable dudgeon” used in combat or in peaceful avocations, like the snick-an-snee of the ancient Dutch. Shields are unknown. The bow is long: the handle and the horns are often adorned with plates of tin and zinc, and the string is whipped round the extremities for strength. ”

“ It lay behind the shoulders of the skeleton of an old man lying on his left side, with his right hand on his head, and his left to his face. Before the face, was a bronze knife 4 inches long, with a single rivet to fasten it to its handle, and close to the axe-hammer lay a pointed flint flake re-chipped on both faces. In a barrow at Sledmere [52] with burnt bones lay a weapon of this kind battered at the blunt end.
An axe-head (61/4 inches) , with convex faces, rounded at the butt, and with an oval shaft-hole, was dredged from the Thames at London, [53] and is now in the British Museum. ”

“ It is fitted with a handle and guard, and is always carried in a sheath. It can be thrown with great precision by the old-time “knife-fighter”; but it is at close quarters that the true wickedness of the weapon comes to light.
In a fight with these knives death must surely result—many times to both antagonists; surely to one. One stroke does it; there is no need of a second if the first really gets home. A strong blow would sever a man’s head from his body!
Both the scout and Boyd Bennett were familiar with the use of the great knife. ”

“ The bloodshot eyes that protrude with wild hatred at the trench no longer see those officers. It is a savage horde merely, in which the modern military hierarchy is lost, obliterated by an intensely individual lust to slay as their ancestors slew. "Na Nos! Na Nos!" "With the knife! With the knife!" What matters it that the knife is at the end of a rifle? It is still a knife, the primordial weapon. With an angry roar, the mass, no longer to be restrained, rushes madly up the slope. ”

“ Black Perry with a look in his eyes that showed the wish to do murder, rose slowly on one knee, glaring at Hales, and his hand fumbled with a bowie knife on his hip; with a sort of animalistic instinct he was judging the chances of a rushing lunge, steel against an undrawn gun, for he, and many men of that day, with good reason, believed a knife more deadly than a gun. ”

“ Every man and boy has at least a pocket-knife with serviceable blade. Fights with such crude weapons are frequent. There are few spectacles more sickening than two powerful but awkward men slashing each other with common jack-knives, though the fatalities are much less frequent than in gun-fighting. I have known two old mountain preachers [Pg 343] to draw knives on each other at the close of a sermon. ”

“ It is very sharp at the point, and the fact of being made from the finest Razor Steel, Hand Forged, Nickel Plated, makes it a very durable knife for Carpenters, Farmers, or Wood-Workers. Price 75 cents.
“GOOD LUCK” KNIFE.
Given for new subscriptions amounting to 50 cents and 15 cents cash additional.
This is our Good Luck Knife; the cheapest and best ever made. It has two strong, hand-forged, razor steel blades; German silver bolsters; is brass lined; cocoa handle, round corners. This is a genuine “Boys” Knife, but is made from better material than most of the boys’ knives. ”

“ I don't know what I should have done if he had resisted, but I think that at the moment I would have become a murderer, and, if necessary, have used not only the knife, but also the pistol, which I had by me.
Seeing my determination, and especially the knife, the "contraband" laid back on his oars and pulled for the shore lustily, looking neither to the right nor the left, but keeping both his white eyes riveted on my dagger and pistol. ”

“ I have seen flint knives in outline very like Fig. 240 in the museums at Cracow, Moscow, and Kiev. Some are highly polished by friction and may have served as sickles.
It is difficult to assign any definite use to the British form of knife, but as the curvature is evidently intentional, and as probably it was more difficult to chip out such curved blades than it would have been to make them straight, there must have been some advantage resulting from the form. As both edges of the blade are sharp, it is hard to say whether the convex or concave edge was the principal object. ”

“ What does it matter if we are separated from the other black side of the zero rock only by the thickness of a blade? A knife is the most solid, the most immortal, the most inspired invention of man. The knife served on the guillotine. The knife is the universal tool for cutting knots. The way of paradoxes follows its sharp edge, the only way becoming to a fearless mind. ”

“ I had hacked at the head of one man with my hunting-knife, which was almost as big and heavy as a short sword, with such vigour, that the sharp steel had split his skull down to the eyes, and was held so fast by it that as he suddenly fell sideways the knife was twisted right out of my hand. ”

“ Knives were to be their weapons. There were others on the raft. There were axes, cutlasses, and harpoons; but the use of these was prohibited to either of the intended combatants: as nothing could be fairer than the sailor’s knife,—with which each was provided,—and no weapon in close combat could be used with more certain or deadlier effect. ”

“ Such a rifle should be a breech-loader, as the advantage of loading quickly while on horseback is incalculable. Hunting-knives should be of soft steel, similar to butchers' knives; but one principal knife to be worn daily should be of harder steel, with the back of the blade roughed and case-hardened like a butcher's steel, for sharpening other knives when required. ”