Large Fierce Mammal

A display of working knives that would have complemented one another in the hands of Fishermen engaged in the East Coast Cod Fishery in the age of sail. Top to bottom: Bait Knife (approx. 11 inch blade for scale) – Used to cut and prepare bait for hook and line fishing; Filleting Knife – Used to process fish, specifically for removing skin and bone; and Splitting Knife – A rectangular bladed knife with the squared off end used to split codfish and remove the backbone. (LFM Photo with thanks to Nova Scotia Fisheries Museum, Lunenburg, NS. Apologies for reflections and shadows due to the subjects being inside a glass case under less than favourable lighting for photography.) CLICK IMAGE TO ENBIGGEN.

The brace of knives laid out in the photo at the top of this piece are representative of those familiar to fishermen who crewed salt bank schooners sailing out of Nova Scotia and other East Coast ports at a time when wind and muscle propelled human endeavour beyond the thin veneer. Much of value can be learned about history, the written and otherwise, by studying the lives lived and tools used by working people. Notwithstanding commonalities and divergence in design and application informed by the specifics of time and place, basic tools devised to solve basic problems common to Human Beings everywhere will bear recognizable similarity no matter the culture that birthed them. Absent the kind of extraneous wealth that permits “fashion” to enter the equation, each will represent an expression of what it is to be a True Tool as I have previous defined it here.

It all comes down, you see, to a melding of Tool design with the technique required to employ it in accomplishing a goal, all with an understanding that the curves defining outcome versus energy expenditure have to find that perfect crossing point, and the more work that can be accomplished by savvy melding of implement design with method of application, the better. ~ ~ A Long Winter’s Night — Ascent to Spring Edition: Of Form and Function

A shining example is the simplicity of the knife in all its wondrous variety. Throughout the world, wherever people have lived or continue to live “close to the bone”, we find the simple, single edged, long bladed knife as constant companion, with or without shorter bladed accompaniment.

“In the world of cuts and cutting, there are a lot of different needs and different ways to address those needs. The factors involved in whittling on a stick are different than those in slicing a ham or a roast. Skinning an animal requires a different kind of cutting than does chopping tree limbs to build a litter or a shelter for the night. Small knives do have their place in the scheme of things, and a knife with a 4-inch blade will do well for cutting small things and skinning. But small knives are limited to making short cuts and cuts that don’t require a lot of power.

“If you doubt this, go to a meat market and watch a butcher break down a beef carcass. He starts off with a knife that has a long blade, 10 inches or more, for the long slicing cuts that this work requires at first As the carcass breaks down into smaller pieces, he changes to smaller knives. In the same vein, if you need to cut trees as big around as your wrist and all you have is a knife with a 4-inch blade, you are going to be in for a very long afternoon. What it boils down to is simply that small knives in some cases will not make the large, heavy cuts that may be required — but a big knife will make a small cut when one is required.” ~ Bill Bagwell ABS Master Smith (From his Battle Blades column in Soldier of Fortune – Issue 1987-09)

From these realities evolved a plethora of successful designs, each woven solidly into the culture that spawned and evolved it. A broad but by no means complete list is presented below, in no particular order:

• Bowie Knife (North America);
• Dirk (Scotland);
• Bauernwehr (Germany and Switzerland);
• Seax; (Northern Europe Viking Era);
• Leuku (Lapland);
• Khukuri (Nepal);
• Parang (Malaysia);
• Bolo (Philippines);
• Machete (Latin America); and
• Trade Knives (North American Fur Trade Era) as referred to in the image and caption below:

Don’t let the sporty motif of the cover art fool you. This is a well executed study of the subject reviewed in detail HERE by Phil Baumhardt of Blackheart Forge. (Image source: Museum of the Fur Trade, Chadron, Nebraska)

He who would mindfully Tool up to Thrive, and not simply survive beyond the thin veneer, needs to thoughtfully pick up and hold a good representative sample of one of these Tools of which I speak. Unless you are a complete dullard divorced from all sense of hand and eye, you will immediately feel how light, balanced, and ready to work it is in the face of any misconceptions you may have previously held as True. These are not the Tools of knuckle dragging cretins nor of homicidal maniacs set on bloody mayhem, and we’ll delve more into that in our next episode.

“I personally dislike the term ‘survivalism’ just as much as that used to describe its adherents – ‘survivalist’ – because they sloppily cloud the most important issue – the fact that in Nature there are only two cardinal points called ‘Life’ and ‘Death’, and in between them lies a quality scale that runs from ‘thriving’ on the one end and ‘better off dead’ on the other. Therefore, until you reach the ‘Death’ end of that scale, you are alive, and by definition ‘surviving’.

“As long as you are alive you will be subject to the vagaries of the universe, and no matter how well heeled, beautiful, or lucky you think you are, your life will always be as vulnerable to unforeseen influences, for good or for ill, as the ship of any ancient mariner. Ancestors with far simpler tools, but far more knowledge based fortitude. than most who think themselves entitled to whatever quality of life they have achieved as of today understood this – one does not aspire merely to survive; one aspires to LIVE to the best of one’s ability given the circumstances!” ~ Dark Sentiments 2011 – Day 21: The Intention to Live

Now I’m going to send you out to the Tool shed for a good talking to from John Butler to whom, no matter your spiritual path, you might give a listen from time to time. Click HERE and absorb the lesson.