Notes

Source of the information below: Inuvialuit Pitqusiit Inuuniarutait: Inuvialuit Living History, The MacFarlane Collection website, by the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre (ICRC), Inuvik, N.W.T., Canada (website credits here http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/posts/12 ), entry on this artifact http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/items/20 , retrieved 1-3-2020: Crooked knife with an iron blade attached to an antler handle with two iron rivets. The handle is curved in a slight arc, and at the end with the blade it is cut aslant and has an indentation on the face opposite the blade to provide a grip for the thumb when held in the right hand. The handle is decorated on the same face with two parallel incised lines that follow the bottom edge of the handle. More information here: http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/item_types/18: Crooked knives were used for shaping wood, bone and antler. The Inuvialuit style of crooked knife has a small blade attached near the end of a curved handle. The knife is held with the fingers of one hand on the underside of the handle, and the thumb positioned on top of the blade in an indentation in the handle. The craftsman rests the underside of the blade against the object being worked, and draws the knife towards the body while using the thumb on the hand holding the tool to check the depth of the cut.