Knives: One of the most important tools for Zalanthans

[jcarter]

Knives are one of the most important tools throughout history. Equally, they are just as important in Zalanthas for a variety of reasons.

A knife is made up of several parts: a blade, a tang, and a handle. The blade and tang are one piece. However, the tang is the section of the blade that goes into the handle. Many knives have what is called a 'blood groove'. There's a variety of ideas surrounding its purpose, such as allowing blood to flow out easier, doing more damage, and so forth. The real reason a blood groove exists (actually called a fuller) is that it helps lower the weight of the knife without losing very much strength.

There are six main types of blades that would be used in Zalanthas:
1)The normal blade. It consists of a straight back and an upward curve. The straight back is kept dull and allows one to exert more force by using the added push from fingertips. The curve allows weight to be focused onto a small area.
2)Curved, trailing-point knife. This knife is similar to #1 but its back curves upward parallel to the blade. This gives a larger curve on the edge and allows for a better slicing action.
3)Double edged (spey) blade. This design is seen most often in fighting knives and daggers. Both sides come to meet at the point. Furthermore, it is kept in a single straight line with the handle for maximum pushing force and can cut in both directions.
4)Clip point blade. A bowie knife holds the same sort of blade as the clip point. The dull edge tapers in and meets with the sharp end to curve up and come to a point. It can be used to pick and cut into tight positions.
5)Sheepsfoot blade. This blade has a dull, curved back and straight sharp edge. It curved back is meant to be used with aide from the fingers. This sort of blade is most often used in whittling.
6)Ulu blade. This sort of blade is a sharpened half circle with the handle in the middle. It's difficult to describe the appearance, so here is a google image search with several examples It is most often used in leatherworking and for scraping.

There are also three types of edges.
1)Flat edge. This is simply just an edge. There are no teeth. It does not hold much cutting power and but can be sharpened over and over again. It also gives a cleaner, sliced cut.
2)Normal teething. This sort of design looks similar to this:
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
The cutting power comes from the points of the teeth. It holds excellent cutting power but tends to tear. Furthermore, sharpening the knife is incredibly difficult, if not impossible.
3)Cutco teething. This is a relatively new style of teething created for kitchen cutlery. The teeth are all a C shape, with the inside sharpened. A blade looks something like this:
C
C
C
C
C
C
It has a better cutting power than both the toothed and flat designs. However, it would be unavailable to Zalanthan technologies.

Knives have secured their positions as the number one weapon in several Zalanthan styles of fighting. A single, well placed thrust from a dagger can do more damage than a hard slash from a sword. The reasoning behind this is the knife's penetrating power. A stab will disrupt and destroy every process where the blade hits. It will completely divide the tissues that it penetrates passed. The destruction of blood vessels can cause both internal and external bleeding. While a wound may seem to bleed too much, an unwitting person can easily fall into shock quickly from internal bleeding. A well placed stab will also fracture bone, destroy tendons, ligaments, and muscles as well.

Because of its ability to strike hard and true, a knife may be a torturer's best friend. With a single well-placed cut, a torturer can stop his prisoner from walking for quite some time and maybe even running for the rest of their life. They can disable parts of the body by destroying the muscle and even detach bones from the tendons and ligaments. A hunk of skin can be sliced off or an eyeball can easily be poked out. There are no limits for a pissed off torturer with a knife.

More importantly are the more practical uses of the knife. A knife is likely used more than once in the day of a Zalanthan. It is used to chop fruit. Cut off an extra bit of thread. Whittle down a branch from a tree into a walking stick.

The knife is valuable aide that can be your best friend. Use it wisely.

[House Rising Sun]

I don't know how necessary any of this is. Primitive knives rarely fall into any modern categories regarding the blade construction. Almost all stone knives you'll see are convex, double-edged blades, except when made by modern knappers. It should be enough to say that zalanthan knife blades are simple, and salarri masters may be the only people in the world that know or care what a certain obscure shape of knife is called.

A few pointless points, though:

Knives don't typically have fullers, and a fuller in a wood, bone, or especially stone knife is just going to make it weak. It's a sword-making thing designed as much for flexibility as width (not lightening), that can only be reasonably applied to steel. A special assassin's knife may have grooves to hold poison and lead it to the tip, but that can hardly be called a fuller (only a 'blood groove' if you buy it from Joe-Bob at a renfest).

Even more irrelevantly, I'll say that calling the double-d edge on a cutco knife C-shaped is misleading. It's not curved by any means, and -it's- the one that cuts with the inside edge, not regular serration. Serrated blades cut with the tips of the teeth. Don't know why you mentioned it.

[jcarter]

I don't know how necessary any of this is. Primitive knives rarely fall into any modern categories regarding the blade construction. Almost all stone knives you'll see are convex, double-edged blades, except when made by modern knappers. It should be enough to say that zalanthan knife blades are simple, and salarri masters may be the only people in the world that know or care what a certain obscure shape of knife is called.

That doesn't mean players necessarily need to be kept in the dark. I doubt that every single blade falls into the same design and shape. Otherwise there would be no need for 'a skinning knife' since it's the exact same as an obsidian knife.

Knives don't typically have fullers, and a fuller in a wood, bone, or especially stone knife is just going to make it weak.

Fair enough, although I've seen more than a handful of knives with a fuller.

It's a sword-making thing designed as much for flexibility as width (not lightening), that can only be reasonably applied to steel.

http://www.bkcg.co.uk/guide/glossary.html
http://sword.gungfu.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_groove
All of the resources I've seen point to making it lighter without reducing strength.

Even more irrelevantly, I'll say that calling the double-d edge on a cutco knife C-shaped is misleading. It's not curved by any means, and -it's- the one that cuts with the inside edge, not regular serration. Serrated blades cut with the tips of the teeth. Don't know why you mentioned it.

Maybe I was mistaken, but I do recall seeing a C shape. On the point of serrated edges, you're right, I'll update the main post with it. Why did I include Cutco? Because I felt like it. Too much information never hurt anyone and this was meant to be an informative post.

[Sandstorm Phoenix]

Very cool post, J.  Thanks.  

(always did wonder what my ulu looked like)