Short Curved Knife, Crooked Knife Item Number: E2284-0 from the National Museum of Natural History

Notes

SI ARCHIVE DISTRIBUTION DOCUMENTS LIST THIS CATALOG NUMBER ON "DISTRIBUTION LIST #6" IN 1867 WITHOUT ANY MENTION OF WHERE IT WAS SENT.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/47 , retrieved 1-3-2020: Crooked knife with an iron blade attached to an antler handle with two iron rivets. The bottom edge of the handle has a series of indentations to improve the grip. 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.