Knives
A knife can be used as a weapon, tool or as sports equipment. There are many types of knives so I have arranged them into 5 simple groups.
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Knives as a weapon
As a weapon, the knife is universally adopted as an essential tool. It is the essential element of a knife fight. For example:
As a weapon, the knife is universally adopted as an essential tool. It is the essential element of a knife fight. For example:
- Ballistic knife: A specialized combat knife with a detachable gas- or spring-propelled blade that can be fired to a distance of several feet or meters by pressing a trigger or switch on the handle.
- 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 by soldiers in the field, as a general-use tool, but also for fighting.
- Dagger: A double-edged combat knife with a central spine and edges sharpened their full length, used primarily for stabbing. Variations include the Stiletto and Push dagger. SeeList of daggers for a more detailed list.
- Fighting knife: A knife with a blade designed to inflict a lethal injury in a physical confrontation between two or more individuals at very short range (grappling distance). Well known examples include the Bowie knife and the Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife.
- Rampuri: An Indian gravity knife of formidable reputation having a single edged blade roughly 9 to 12 inches long.
- Shiv: A crudely made homemade knife out of everyday materials, especially prevalent in prisons among inmates. An alternate name in some prisons is Shank.
- Trench knife: Purpose-made or improvised knives, intended for close-quarter fighting, particularly in trench warfare Some having a d-shaped integral hand guard.
- Butterfly knife: A folding pocket knife also known as a "balisong" or "batangas" with two counter-rotating handles where the blade is concealed within grooves in the handles.
- Throwing knife: A knife designed and weighted for throwing
- Karambit: The karambit is a small Southeast Asian hand-held, curved knife resembling a claw.
Knives as sports equipment
- Throwing knife: A knife designed and weighted for throwing
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:
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
- Cleaver: A large knife that varies in its shape but usually resembles a rectangular-bladed hatchet. It is used mostly for hacking through bones as a kitchen knife or butcher knife, and can also be used for crushing via its broad side, typically garlic.
- Butcher's Knife: A knife designed and used primarily for the butchering and/or dressing of animals.
- 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
- Oyster knife: Has a short, thick blade for prying open oyster shells
- Paring or Coring Knife: A knife with a small but sharp blade used for cutting out the cores from fruit.
- Rocker knife is a knife that cuts with a rocking motion, which is primarily used by people whose disabilities prevent them from using a fork and knife simultaneously.[18]
- 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
Knives as utensils[edit]
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:
As a utility tool the knife can take many forms, including:
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
- Cleaver: A large knife that varies in its shape but usually resembles a rectangular-bladed hatchet. It is used mostly for hacking through bones as a kitchen knife or butcher knife, and can also be used for crushing via its broad side, typically garlic.
- Butcher's Knife: A knife designed and used primarily for the butchering and/or dressing of animals.
- 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
- Oyster knife: Has a short, thick blade for prying open oyster shells
- Paring or Coring Knife: A knife with a small but sharp blade used for cutting out the cores from fruit.
- Rocker knife is a knife that cuts with a rocking motion, which is primarily used by people whose disabilities prevent them from using a fork and knife simultaneously.[18]
- 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
As a utility tool the knife can take many forms, including:
- Balisong: A folding knife also known as a "butterfly knife" or "batangas", with two handles counter-rotating around the tang such that, when closed, the blade is hidden within the handles.
- Bowie knife: Commonly, any large sheath knife, or a specific style of large knife popularized by Jim Bowie.
- Cobbler's knife or shoemaker's knife: A knife with a semicircular blade used by cobblers since antiquity to cut leather.
- Crooked knife: Sometimes referred to as a "curved knife", "carving knife" or in the Algonquian language the "mocotaugan" is a utilitarian knife used for carving.
- Diver's knife: A knife adapted for use in diving and water sports and a necessary part of standard diving dress.
- Electrician's knife: A short-bladed knife used to cut electrical insulation.
- Hunting knife: A knife used to dress large game.
- Kiridashi: A small Japanese knife having a chisel grind and a sharp point, used as a general-purpose utility knife.
- Linoleum knife: is a small knife that has a short, stiff blade with a curved point and a handle and is used to cut linoleum or other sheet materials.
- Machete: A large heavy knife used to cut through thick vegetation such as sugar cane or jungle undergrowth; it may be used as an offensive weapon.
- Palette knife: A knife, or frosting spatula, lacking a cutting edge, used by artists for tasks such as mixing and applying paint and in cooking for spreading icing.
- Paper knife: Or a "letter opener" it is a knife made of metal or plastic, used for opening mail.
- Pocket knife: a folding knife designed to be carried in a pants pocket. Subtypes include:
- Lockback knife: a folding knife with a mechanism that locks the blade into the open position, preventing accidental closure while in use
- Multi-tool and Swiss Army knife, which combine a folding knife blade with other tools and implements, such as pliers, scissors, or screwdrivers
- Produce knife: A knife with a rectangular profile and a blunt front edge used by grocers to cut produce.
- Rigging knife: A knife used to cut rigging in sailing vessels.
- Scalpel: A medical knife, used to perform surgery.
- Straight razor: A reusable knife blade used for shaving hair.
- Survival knife: A sturdy knife, sometimes with a hollow handle filled with survival equipment.
- Switchblade: A knife with a folding blade that springs out of the grip when a button or lever on the grip is pressed.
- Utility knife: A short knife with a replaceable triangular blade, used for cutting sheet materials including card stock, paperboard, and corrugated fiberboard
- Wood carving knife and whittling knives: Knives used to shape wood in the arts of wood carving and whittling, often with short, thin replaceable blades for better control.
- X-Acto knife: A scalpel-like knife with a long handle and a replaceable pointed blade, used for precise, clean cutting in arts and crafts
Knives as a traditional or religious implement
- Athame: A typically black-handled and double-edged ritual knife used in Wicca and other derivative forms of Neopagan witchcraft. (see also Boline).
- Kirpan: A ceremonial knife that all baptised Sikhs must wear as one of the five visible symbols of the Sikh faith (Kakars)
- Kilaya: A dagger used in Tibetan Buddhism
- Kris: A dagger used in Indo-Malay cultures, often by royalty and sometimes in religious rituals.
- Kukri: A Nepalese knife used as both tool and weapon
- Puukko: A traditional Finnish or Scandinavian style woodcraft belt-knife used as a tool rather than a weapon
- Seax: A Germanic single-edged knife, used primarily as a tool, but may have been a weapon
- Sgian Dubh: A small dagger traditionally worn with highland dress (kilt)