Knives are true human friends. Since prehistoric times until now, it has become an unattached part of human life. It helps humans provide food and shelter, even shy away from wild animals-and then fight. It also evolves with human civilization.
Sharp Stone
In the Stone Age (Paleolithic) 40,000 BC, early humans used bones or rocks that were flattened and sharpened to hunt game animals, slicing meat, and cutting the tubers. In the late Stone Age, sharp stones (flintstone) were traded. One of the areas of good quality sharp stone producer is Grand Presiggny in France.
Jagged Stone Knives
Entering the Ice Age, approximately 10,000 BC, humans need a tool that can cut hard beds such as bone. They then found a jagged stone knife. With this tool, people who are facing a food crisis can strip off little food that can be obtained from human bones.
Metal Knives
In the Metal Age, humans began to make and use metal tools, including knives. Humans are familiar with metal fusing techniques and print them into the tools they want. According to the periodization of this era, metal blades also developed, from using copper, bronze, to iron.
Bamboo Knives
The bamboo knife, or in Java known as the Welat, is a thin sharp bamboo made. In the past, this welat was used for a circumcision tool or a baby cavity tool. Welat is made for single use. According to Harry Oxorn and William R. Forte in the Science of Midwifery: The Pathology and Physiology of Labor, bamboo knives are free of tetanus germs and contain useful enzymes that slow the infection. It is unclear since when welats began to be used. But it is believed he is a traditional tool that has been known for a long time.
Ivory knife
The ancient Greeks and Romans were credited with creating a folding knife, and also a knife with an ivory knife. Ivory knives are preferred to cut fruit because they do not transfer the taste of metal to food. The knife handles are decorated beautifully, and many people take pride in having fashionable knives, as well as one with a sharp knife than others.
Kelt Nation Knives
The Kelt people of Central Europe possessed metal processing expertise. With that skill they could defeat the Romans in 390 BC. Kelt Knives are deliberately designed for the battlefield. Some Kelt knives have a unique decoration on the handle.
Damascus knife
This knife is legendary because of its sharpness. In the story of the Crusades, he was able to penetrate the armor of the Western knights. The key lies in the use of the material: a mixture of carbon and iron - known as wootz cake - imported from India, where the melting of the material has been done since 200 BC.
Folding knife
The folding knife was never really used as a weapon. But he is popular as a supporting tool in a journey. Of this type, the most popular Barlow folding knife. Furnace Luke of Stannington, England, in 1760 designed this special folding knife to be marketed to the United States. The use of the folding knife is safer with the discovery of a locking mechanism. After the discovery of stainless steel by Henry Brearley in 1921, the development of the blade increasingly varied.
The Command Knife
In 1940, Eric Anthony Sykes and William Ewart Fairbairns made a special knife for British Command troops. This knife was used the first time in World War II. The design is typical of a piercer, double-edged, can be used to stab or cut.
Kitchen knife
There are two areas that have long been known as the largest knife producer in the world: Solingen in Germany and Seki in Japan. In Germany, Henckels (formed 1731) pioneered the manufacture of kitchen knives, which traditionally use mild steel. While in Japan, known for its samurai sword tradition and knife-making techniques have begun during the Muromachi era in the 14th century, the Seki brand is the best quality assurance.
Throughout history, kitchen knives have grown rapidly and have various forms and uses, mainly due to French influence. From the material side, after the 1910s, the use of stainless steel dominated. The discovery of materials such as titanium, carbon fiber, polyethylene, and synthetic fibers contributes to the making of the blades. The latest material is a high-tech ceramic knife called zirconia. This ceramic knife has several advantages such as harder, lighter, more rigid, heat resistant, and more corrosion resistant than a stainless steel blade.
Throw Knives
Currently the use of a knife not only to kill or hurt the opponent, but touching the field of sports, namely throwing a knife. James Bowie, an American soldier, who popularized it in the Texas Revolution or Texas war of independence in 1835-1836. This knife throwing action was so popular among Confederate soldiers at the time.
In its development, this knife throw shifted into a kind of sport and has its own rules. This knife-throwing sport is internationally under the International Knife Throwers Hall of Fame (IKTHOF) based in Austin-Texas.
This sport developed to Indonesia, initiated by some students of Art ITB in 1980s. However, only in 2010 formed the community D'Lempis, short for The Throw Pisau, which then penetrated to Jakarta. Some of its members ranked in the top 10 in the event held IKTHOF.
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