With such knives as these the cut is made by drawing the knife toward the user instead of pushing it away, as in using the round knife. We found no evidence that these Eskimo ever used knives of ivory (except for cutting snow) or ivory knives with bits of iron inlaid in the edge, such as have been observed among those of the East.
Fig. 109.—Knife with whalebone blade.
Fig. 109, No. 89477 [1422], is a very extraordinary implement, which was brought down from Point Barrow and which has evidently been exposed alongside of some corpse at the cemetery. The blade is a long, flat, thin piece of whalebone wedged between the two parts of the haft, which has been sawed lengthwise for 6½ inches to receive it. The haft is a slender piece of antler. No other specimens of the kind were seen, nor have similar implements, to my knowledge, been observed elsewhere. The natives insisted that it was genuine, and was formerly used for cutting blubber.
Fig. 110.—Small iron knife.
I have introduced four figures of old iron or steel knives, of which we have six specimens, in order to show the way in which the natives in early days, when iron was scarce, utilized old case-knives and bits of tools, fitting them with hafts of their own make. All agree in having the edge beveled on the upper face only. All the knives which they obtain from the whites at the present day are worked over with a file so as to bring the bevel on one face only. Fig. 110, No. 89296 [970], from Nuwŭk, has a blade of iron, and the flat haft is made of two longitudinal sections of reindeer antler, held together with four large rivets nearly equidistant. The two which pass through the tang are of brass and the other two of iron. The blade is 3.6 inches long, the haft 4.1 long and 0.9 broad. Fig. 110, No. 89294 [901], from Utkiavwĭñ, has a short, thick, and sharp-pointed blade, and is hafted in the same way with antler, one section of the haft being cut out to receive the short, thick tang. The first two rivets are of iron, the other three of brass and not quite long enough to go wholly through the haft. The blade is barely 2 inches long. Fig. 111a, No. 89297 [1125], from Nuwŭk, has a short blade, 2½ inches long, and the two sections of the haft are held together, not by rivets, but by a close spiral lasting of stout seal thong extending the whole length of the haft. No. 89293 [1330], Fig. 111b, from Utkiavwĭñ, has a peculiarly shaped blade, which is a bit of some steel tool imbedded in the end of a straight bit of antler 4 inches long. One of these knives, not figured, is evidently part of the blade of an old-fashioned curved case knife. It is stamped with the name “Wilson,” and underneath this are three figures, of which only <> can be made out. This may be a table knife bought or stolen from the Plover in 1852-’54.