A knife is described as something with a cutting edge. Handle or no handle. It was and still is used for hunting and self defense As long as it can cut it is considered a knife. To day most of your knives are made of metal, or even ceramics on a rear occasion . But the first knives where made of stones such as obsidian, or flint. It is believed that there would have been knives made of things like bone and wood but these materials would not have lasted to today.
Knives start to look more like what we know as knives about five thousand years ago. This is when man started to understand how to work with metal. At this point knives where made out of copper, then bronze, iron, and now steel. There are many alloys, such as carbon fiber, and titanium that are used today that make knives the sharpest and strongest they have ever been.
The knives we see today can be broken up into two types fixed blades, and folding blades other wise called pocket knives. Both of these knives have basically the same parts. The two most obvious parts are the blade, and the handle. The tang is the medal from the blade that runs thought the handle. There are also two types of tangs. The full tang that goes all the way thought the handle, and the partial tang witch only runs part way thought the handle. Full tangs knives are much better knives and it is reflected with the price at stores full tang knives are normally much more expensive that partial tang knives. Other parts of the knife are the end of the knife that is used to pierce, the edge and is used to cut., cross section, spine, fuller witch is the groove. Some people think that this is a blood groove but it is really just to make the knife lighter. The ricasso this is the metal part that is not sharp between the blade and the handle, guard, and the butt. The butt may have a whole in it to run a lanyard though.
Knives made to day are much more complex then the stone or even bronze knives of the past. With a wide variety of medals to make knives out of. Depending on the metal your knife will have very different strong points and weak points. If your knife is made out of carbon steel it will be able to get very sharp, and hold its edge for a long time. when the blade loses it edge it is very easily sharpened. On the down side carbon steel will rust and stain easily. Now stainless steel will not rust and stain as easily but will never be as sharp as the carbon steel.
The handle of a knife can be made up of many different things. The handle can be made of just plain wood. Or can be very decorative. Other materials used for the handles of knives are plastic, rubber, micarta, leather, or it can be made of medal. Decorative handles could be made from bone, ivory, oosic, walrus tusk, sheep or buffalo horn, mother of pearl, and well just about anything
To try to bring the best quality's of both of these steels there is a medal called high carbon stainless steel. This. These blades do not stain and hold there very shape edge. Another type of knife is made from laminate this is using many types of metal sandwiched together to make the best knife possible. Titanium is used to make a light but strong knife, but titanium will never get as sharp as the carbon steel. Ceramic knives are hard, and very light. They will hold a sharp edge for years with out having to sharpen it. But they are very brittle. If you where to drop it on something hard it would break. When sharpening them you will need a silicon carbide sandpaper.
Fixed blades are your basic straight knives they do not fold and need to have a sheath to cover the blade and are normally worn on a belt. because the tang runs down thougth the handle fixed knives are much stronger than there folding friends. It also helps that there are no moving parts to the fixed blade knives. Pocket knives, and folding knives have a pivot point that folds the knife into the handle. Most of these have some sort of locking system on them. Some of the most popular are the slip joint, lock back, liner lock, frame lock, button lock, axis lock. These locks are unique to Benchmade knives. And the pick lock. Witch one people like is all just a matter of opinion they all work great it comes down to what the individual is most comfortable with.
knives are one of the worlds oldest and virsital tools, there are knives made for just about anything. Knives can be used as a weapon, a utensil, and a tool. There are even knives that are used in religious or traditional ceremonies. In every part of our history knives have played a part in making us what we are today.
