The single-edged knives were probably all meant specially for cutting food, and are all of the same general pattern, varying in size from a blade only 2½ inches long to one of 7 inches. The blade is generally more strongly curved along the edge than on the back and is usually sharp-pointed. It is fitted with a broad tang to a straight haft, usually shorter than the blade. There are in the collection four complete knives and five unhafted blades. No. 89597 [1052] (Fig. 106) is a typical knife of this kind. The blade is of black slate, rather rough, and is 5.6 inches long (including the tang). The tang, which is about one-half inch long and the same breadth, is lashed against one end of the flat haft of bone which is cut away to receive it, with five turns of stout seal thong. No. 89594 [1053] differs from the preceding only in having the tang inserted in a cleft in the end of the haft, and No. 89589a [1054] has the back more curved than the edge, the haft of antler and the lashing of whalebone. All three are of very rude workmanship. No. 89587 [1587], is a small knife with a truncated point and the tang imbedded without lashing in the end of a roughly made haft of bone.
Fig. 107.—Blades of knives.
Most of the blades are those of knives similar to the type, more smoothly finished, but No. 56712 [226] (Fig. 107a) is noticeable for the extreme “belly” of the edge and the smoothness with which the faces are beveled from back to edge. Such knives approach the woman’s round knife (ulu, ulu´ra). No. 89601 [776] (Fig. 107b) is almost double-edged, the back being rounded off. Fig. 108, No. 89631 [1081], is a very remarkable form of slate knife, of which this was the only specimen seen. In shape it somewhat resembles a hatchet, having a broad triangular blade with a strongly curved cutting edge, along the back of which is fitted a stout haft of bone 12½ inches long. The blade is of soft, dark purple slate, ground smooth, and resembles the modern knives in having the sharp cutting edge beveled almost wholly on one face. The haft is the foreshaft of an old whale harpoon, and is made of whale’s bone. The back of the blade is fitted into a deep narrow saw cut, and held on by three very neat lashings of narrow strips of whalebone, each of which passes through a hole drilled through the blade close to the haft and through a pair of vertical holes in the haft on each side of the blade. These holes converge towards the back of the haft and are joined by a deep channel, so that the lashing is countersunk below the surface of the haft. This implement was brought down from Nuwŭk and offered for sale as a knife anciently used for cutting off the blubber of a whale. The purchaser got the impression that it was formerly attached to a long pole and used like a whale spade. On more careful examination after our return it was discovered that the haft was really part of an old harpoon and that the lashings and holes to receive them were evidently newer than the haft.
Fig. 108.—Peculiar slate knife.
It is possible that the blade may have been long ago fitted to the haft and that the tool may have been used as described. That knives of this sort were occasionally used by the Eskimo is shown by a specimen in the Museum from Norton Sound. This is smaller than the one described but has a slate blade of nearly the same shape and has a haft, for hand use only, put on in the same way.