As Old As Man

The Hunting Knife Is Deeply Rooted in the History of Edged Tools

- David Jaye

3.2 million years. That’s how far back records of man—and knives —go.

That’s also how long man has attempted to perfect the cutting edge in order to secure an advantage in the age-old profession of hunting. It has only been in the last 100 years that man has perfected the materials which allow the finest knives in our long history to be put into the hands of hunters.

In this story, we will delve deeper into how the hunting knife has changed and how it has affected the way we hunt throughout the millennia.

A Deep History

Historians prefer written accounts over oral history and Nimrod was the first recorded hunter in the Bible. He was the great grandson of Noah and the book of Genesis states he was “a mighty hunter in the eyes of the Lord.” Knowing that we were not processing steel at that point in our history, it is fair to guess that he would have used an obsidian knife to process his game.

A couple of millennia later, Egyptian Pharaohs and other nobles took great excursions to hunt desert game along the Nile valley with Bronze Age weapons and knives. However, over time, they were phased out and the Romans had conquered most of Europe and the Middle Eastern countries, ushering in crude forms of steel used for blades—vastly improving the cutting ability of knives.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, European nobility seized all lands and all game animals therein, legislating the death sentence to prevent the common folk from hunting. During this period, the long-bladed hunting dagger, or short sword, was the knife of the noble hunter, used mainly to dispatch wounded game—while the butchering was delegated to the peasant gamekeeper. It was not until the Europeans discovered and colonized the Americas, with its rich abundance of game, that the common man could again hunt with impunity.