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This example of a sacrificial dagger comes from Mexico. Dating back to the 15th or 16th century, it features a mosaic handle carved from a single piece of wood in the form of a crouching man dressed as an eagle warrior. The blade is crafted from chalcedony.
Bronze daggers made during the Mycenaean period—the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1600–1100 BCE—are especially decorative.
Pictured is a rare, near-complete 2000-year-old dagger and weapon belt of a Roman legionary. Discovered in the Roman burial ground at Haltern am See in Germany, the elaborate dagger is with its belt of arms.
This Hayagriva Dorje Phurba dagger from Lhasa in Tibet is a triple-sided tantric ritual dagger. It's made with a crystal point.
The Indonesian kris is an asymmetrical dagger with distinctive wavy blade-patterning. Balinese men regarded the kris as the main symbol of their social identity, an heirloom that embodied part of the family deity, and had itself vital spiritual force. These beautiful examples have handles in the shape of Raksasas to guard against demons.
Seax is an Old English word for "knife," specifically for a type of small sword, knife, or dagger typical of the Germanic peoples of the early Middle Ages. Pictured is a 8th-century hunting knife and ivory sheath, both housed in Aachen Cathedral Treasury, Germany.
This gold dagger, a fine example of Oriental art, dates back to 2454 BCE. It's on display at the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad.
Crafted in Florence in the 16th century, this decorative knife perfectly demonstrates the art of the Italian blade smith and the silversmith.
A late 19th-century ivory paper knife made in China during the Qing dynasty. This example features silver mounts that have a London hallmark for 1875-6. In fact, the correct term for this knife is letter opener, due to its longer, blunter blade.
A pair of bone daggers from the Neolithic period unearthed at Cetoan, Italy.
An early example of a pocket knife, c. 1900, and referred to in the day as a scalpel. The hand-crafted silver cases were often commissioned separately by wealthy individuals.
Unearthed among the many artifacts discovered in the tomb of Tutankhamen, this dagger made of gold, iron, semi-precious stones, and vitreous pastes, plus the sheath decorated with a hunting scene, belonged to the boy king.
This pair of 19th-century handcrafted silver daggers typify the fine quality craftsmanship of the period. The ornate daggers feature a curved, double-edge blade.
This Mycenaean dagger is engraved in gold, silver, bronze, and niello, and depicts a hunting scene. It was discovered at Grave Circle, the main entrance of the Bronze Age citadel of Mycenae in southern Greece.
This ceremonial knife with its crescent-shaped blade of gold is an artifact typical of the Chimú culture. Chimor with its capital city of Chan Chan, was located in the Moche Valley of present-day Trujillo, Peru.
Similar in design to the SS-Ehrendolch, or SS honor dagger, this Nazi-era blade would have been specially commissioned for a high-ranking party official.
By the late 1890s, the multi-tool folding pocket knife had expanded the 1875 design and incorporated knives, fork, spoon, scissors, saw, can opener, corkscrew, and screwdriver. Looks familiar, doesn't it?
French company Opinel has manufactured and marketed a line of eponymous wooden-handled knives since 1890. Opinel knives have become emblematic of French culture and even found favor with Pablo Picasso, who reportedly used one of the company's knives as a sculpting tool.
A combination steel pen knife with three blades and a corkscrew dating back to 1875. The design was very innovative for the period.
First produced in 1891, the Swiss Army knife is the best-known of the multi-tool knives. Since 2006, the handle of the Swiss Army Knife bears a Victorinox or Wenger "cross" logo or, for Swiss military issue knives, the coat of arms of Switzerland.
An ornamental dagger that once allegedly belonged to Libya's former dictator, Muammar Gaddafi. The ivory dagger is garnished with ruby, sapphire, emerald, and diamond.
The history of the knife is nearly as old as humanity itself. Originally made from copper, bronze, iron, steel, and ceramic, the knife served various purposes. Along with the dagger—a knife with a very sharp point and usually two sharp edges, typically designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon—the manufacture of these blades tested the skills of the very finest craftsmen in the land.
Click through the following gallery and take a slice out of history with these examples of early blades from around the world.
A weapon notable for its H-shaped horizontal handgrip, the katar is the most famous and characteristic of Indian daggers.
The earliest Neolithic daggers were made of materials such as flint, ivory, or bone. The photograph shows a dagger and a spearhead uncovered at a Neolithic archeological excavation site in Israel.
A 16th-century ruby-studded example of a dagger with a zoomorphic hilt. The design combines Persian and Indian symbols of power—a dragon, whose tail wraps around the grip, attacks a lion, which in turn attacks a deer. This piece is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
One of the most iconic knifes of the 19th century, the fixed-blade fighting knife created by James Black for Jim Bowie is still made today. Early examples are highly prized by collectors.
An example of convict ingenuity rather than the bladesmith's art, a shiv, or shank, is a homemade knife-like weapon, especially one fashioned in prison. The word is almost certainly evolved from 17th-century "chive," or knife.
See also: Creepy prisons from history that'll give you the chills.
This double-edged metal blade with a brass hilt in a "knuckle duster" design is a 1918 trench knife and scabbard issued during the First World War.
Once upon a time, guests at a meal brought their own cutlery. It was only in the 17th century that hosts among the elite began to lay out cutlery at the table. The distinguishing feature of a table knife is a blunt or rounded end, designed to cut prepared and cooked food.
A traditional knife of the Yakuts, an ethnic group from Siberia, the Yakutian is used for working with wood, hides, skins, fish and meat, or for combat. Its design has changed little over hundreds of years, though the example pictured is a modern version.
A folding pocketknife originating in the Philippines, the butterfly knife, also known as a balisong, first appeared in the country in the early 1900s. It was used as a self-defense and pocket utility knife. Pictured is a modern version of the original design.
An ulu is an all-purpose knife traditionally used by Inuit, Yupik, and Aleut women. Its applications range from skinning and cleaning animals to trimming blocks of snow and ice used to build an igloo.
Humanity has been using knives for millennia. The first crude versions appeared at least 2.5 million years ago, during the Lower Paleolithic period when Oldowan stone tools (pictured) were used by early humans known as Hominins.
Daggers, knives, and the art of the bladesmith
The blade throughout history
LIFESTYLE Knife
The history of the knife is nearly as old as humanity itself. Originally made from copper, bronze, iron, steel, and ceramic, the knife served various purposes. Along with the dagger—a knife with a very sharp point and usually two sharp edges, typically designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon—the manufacture of these blades tested the skills of the very finest craftsmen in the land.
Click through the following gallery and take a slice out of history with these examples of early blades from around the world.