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Description: | Incomplete forged iron knife, with a broken blade at one end, and tapering towards the tang at the other end which is bent at a 45 degree angle. The upper edge and the blade edge have parallel sides in plan, from the break until the blade starts to taper towards the tang, at an oblique angle. One face of the knife is forged and tapered in three stages, as it narrows to the cutting edge, in section. The opposite face is flat, suggesting that this blade was used to cut sideways, perhaps as part of a pair of shears, or used like a 'currier' knife which was used for cutting and paring leather. These tools have the tang flush with the upper edge of the blade, the opposite edge to the cutting edge, as this example does. The tang does appear to be getting thicker and more lozenge-shaped in section, so that it may be part of the arm of a pair of shears, but it may be just an extension of the broken and corroded blade, as there is normally a more defined right angle between the blade and the base of the tang. The iron has been corroded and there are layers of corrosion product that have flaked off, removing the original surface, but the majority of the piece is still intact.The condition of the iron and the shape of the blade do not look prehistoric (Niall Sharples pers comm) even though the object was found on the site of an Iron Age hillfort.Margeson (1993) illustrates knives with a similar profile and tangs flush with the upper edge on pages 126-7, Figs.92-3, Nos.799 & 811, which are dated from the 17th century, and shears which have parallel sides in plan and are tapered on one side only in section on page 134, Fig.99, Nos.903-4, which are dated from c.1600-1675.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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