The crooked knife sometimes referred to as a "curved knife", "carving knife," or "mocotaugan," from the

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...

term "môhkotâkan," is a woodworking

knife A knife ( : knives; from Old Norse 'knife, dirk') is a tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade, usually attached to a handle or hilt. One of the earliest tools used by humanity, knives appeared at least 2.5 million years ago, as evidenced ...

, typically with a curved end. The crooked knife is a common tool found amongst the native Americans of the

Eastern Woodlands The Eastern Woodlands is a cultural area of the indigenous people of North America. The Eastern Woodlands extended roughly from the Atlantic Ocean to the eastern Great Plains, and from the Great Lakes region to the Gulf of Mexico, which is now pa ...

as well as non-native woodworkers. The ''crooked'' in "crooked knife" refers to its unusual shape with the handle set at an

oblique angle In Euclidean geometry, an angle is the figure formed by two rays, called the '' sides'' of the angle, sharing a common endpoint, called the ''vertex'' of the angle. Angles formed by two rays lie in the plane that contains the rays. Angles are ...

to the blade. The blade can be straight or curved, long or short and can be made of a steel forged specifically for the knife, or from reused

hardened steel The term hardened steel is often used for a medium or high carbon steel that has been given heat treatment and then quenching followed by tempering. The quenching results in the formation of metastable martensite, the fraction of which is reduce ...

from another source. The shape of the blade, whether curved or straight, is a function of the carving purpose of the user: straight for

whittling Whittling may refer either to the art of carving shapes out of raw wood using a knife or a time-occupying, non-artistic (contrast wood carving for artistic process) process of repeatedly shaving slivers from a piece of wood. It is used by many as ...

wood, making

splints Splints is an ailment of the horse or pony, characterized by a hard, bony swelling, usually on the inside of a front leg, lying between the splint and cannon bone or on the splint bone itself. It may be "hot," meaning that it occurred recently an ...

for baskets and incising, curved for hollowing out bowls and masks and ladles, as well as myriad other usages. The 1971 documentary ''César et son canot d'écorce'' (''César's Bark Canoe'') illustrates the use of a crooked knife in the construction of a birch-bark canoe.

Description and Usage

John McPhee John Angus McPhee (born March 8, 1931) is an American writer. He is considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. He is a four-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the category General Nonfiction, and he won that award on the fourth ...

states, "The blade was bent near its outer end (enabling it to move in grooves and hollows where the straight part could not). The grip, fashioned for convenience of a hand closing over it, was bulbous. The blade had no hinge and protruded rigidly - but not straight out. It formed a shallow V with the grip."

Adney Adney is an English locative name from Adeney. Notable people with this surname include: * Syed Adney (born 1986), Malaysian footballer * Tappan Adney (1868–1950), American-Canadian artist, a writer and a photographer See also * Adeney (surna ...

and Chapelle state, "The knife, held with the cutting edge toward the user, was grasped fingers-up with the thumb of the holding hand laid along the part of the handle projecting away from the user. This steadied the knife in cutting. Unlike a jackknife, the crooked knife was not used to

whittle Whittle may refer to: Crafts *Whittling, the carving of wood with a knife People * Whittle (name), a surname, and a list of people with the name Places * Whittle, Kentucky * Whittle, Derbyshire, a hamlet near Glossop, Derbyshire, United Kingdom ...

but to cut toward the user, and was, in effect, a one-hand

drawknife A drawknife (drawing knife, draw shave, shaving knife) is a traditional woodworking hand tool used to shape wood by removing shavings. It consists of a blade with a handle at each end. The blade is much longer (along the cutting edge) than it is ...

." According to Henri Vaillancourt, "The original crooked knife was made out of a beaver's tooth."

Description and Usage

References

Further reading/external links