Cane knife
A cane knife is a large hand-wielded cutting tool similar to a machete.[1] Its use is prevalent in the harvesting of sugarcane in dominant cane-growing countries such as Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Australia, South Africa, Ecuador, Cuba, Jamaica, the Philippines and parts of the United States, especially Louisiana and Florida, as well as Hawaii.
Design
A typical cane knife is characterized by a hardwood handle, a full tang, a deep blade and a hook at its tip used for picking up the cut cane, although some types do not employ this feature. The blade is usually 1 millimetre (0.039 in) thick, thinner than a machete or bolo, and more than 12 inches (30 cm) long. The thin blade facilitates cutting cane quickly as the harvester slashes the cane at an angle: a thin blade slices through better than a thick blade.
Gallery
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Sugar cane knife, 1800s, used by enslaved Africans to cut sugar cane in the Danish West Indies -
1888 drawing of "Queen Mary" Thomas, one of the leaders of the 1878 Fireburn riot in St. Croix, holding a cane knife and torch -
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Canecutters in Ayr, Australia c.1907 -
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Female cane cutters in Barbados, 2011 -
A well-used cane knife -
Old cane knife in south Louisiana, of the type that was the most common weapon in the 1811 German Coast uprising.
See also
References
- ^ Hanson, Beth (1996). "Chapter 3 - Tools & Techniques: Chemical-free Weed Controls". Invasive Plants: Weeds of the Global Garden. Brooklyn Botanic Garden. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-945352-95-2. Retrieved 2008-02-08.
