A-2 ... An air hardening tool steel used by handmade knife makers

African Blackwood ... An African Rosewood, also called Mozambique Ebony, it is a rich black with dark brown graining. One of the best woods for knife handles.

Alumina Ceramic ... Largely made up of Alumina, very abrasive, it is extruded into rods to make up sharpening tools. First used by Crock Stick inventor Louis Graves.

Amber ... Fossilized pitch from pre-historic evergreens, used by some makers of handmade knives.

Arkansas Stone ... Discovered by Europeans about 1816, until the developement of modern Alumina, the Arkansas stones were the undisputed leader in knife sharpening. The black hard stone will put on a polished edge that can be obtained no other way by hand.

Arkansas Toothpick ... The first was believed to have been made in Arkansas and the natives of that state were thought to be so tough, they picked their teeth with the knives! After the movie The Iron Mistress (1955), it began to mean a large dagger with a needle pointed blade.

Arm knife ... Small knives carried near the shoulder on the left arm by many tribe of the Sudanese. Double edge blade about six inches long.

Assegai ... Portuguese word for spear, often applied to the Zulu tribal spear (although the word was never used by the natives).

Badelaire ... Heavy 16th Century sabre.

Baldric ... A shoulder belt or sling for carrying a sword.

Ballistic Cloth ... A heavy nylon-type material used for gun cases and knife pouches. The most common commercial form is Dupont Cordura.

Barlow ... A folding knife design that is more than 150 years old. This was an inexpensive knife, always a one or two blade jackknife pattern with longer than normal bolsters, sought after by collectors.

Barong ... The knife of the Moros of the southern Philippines. The Barong has a leaf shaped blade of about 15 inches by three inches wide that curves to the point.

Basket Hilt ... A sword hilt that entirely covers the hand with connecting bars from guard to pommel, best known of these is the Scottish Broadsword.

Bayonet ... A knife or spike intended to be fastened to the end of the barrel of a musket or military assault rifle.

Bead Blasted ... A surface where tiny beads of glass are shot against the surface.

Black Oxide ... A coating put on knife blades to aid rustproofing or to stop all reflection.

Black Pearl ... Or "Black Lip Mother of Pearl" is very rare and probably the most expensive of all mother of pearls.

Blade Length ... The length of the blade which is sharpened measured between the two furthest points.

Blood Groove ... Or "Fuller" is a groove that lightens and stiffens the blade, normally running down parallel to the blade back about three quarters of the way up the blade itself.

Bolo ... The word is Spanish but means a jungle knife used in the Philippines. Also refers to the blade design which has been reproduced somewhat by companies such as Junglee.

Bolster ... A piece of metal at the end of a folding knife (normally Nickel Silver, brass or aluminium).

Bowie, James ... The man who made the Bowie knife famous, although the knife itself was actually designed by his brother Rezin Bowie.

Bowie Blade ... The Bowie "style" blade has an upswept clip at the tip of the blade which is often accentuated. Bowie style blades can be found in most types of knife, fixed blade or folding, like the Buck 110 and 112 Folding Hunter series.

Of course, the "true" Bowie blade that we know tends to be one of two types. American Bowie knives traditionally feature a 9" blade of a very wildly accentuated style, whereas British Bowie's tend to feature a 6" or 10" blade with a Rosewood or staghorn handle, a much more refined design.

BPM Leisure Clip ... a clip (normally manufactured from steel), attached to the back of a knife which allows it to be attached to a belt, or slipped onto the edge of a pocket, or used as a money-clip to hold notes.

Butt Cap ... A metal, stag or plastic pommel at the end of a knife handle.

Carbon Fibre ... A woven composite of graphite fibres fused in an epoxy resin, providing incredible strength and durability with practically no weight at all.

Canoe ... A twin-bladed pocket knife with the handle ends curve up and make a canoe shape.

Caper ... A knife designed to do the delicate work of skinning animals.

Caps ... The metal reinforcement at the non-blade end of a knife handle.

Carbon ... The mineral that transforms iron into steel. High-carbon steel results when 0.5 percent or more carbon is present.

Cattlemans knife ... A knife with a clip or spear master blade, a spey blade and a leather punch or secondary blade.

Ceramic Blades ... Incredibly sharp blades, unnatural levels of edge retention and sharpness, and they'll never rust. Perfect? Not quite. Drop one on a hard surface and you'll be picking up ceramic cubes for weeks! Fantastic for domestic cutlery if you can afford the high price tag.

Chipped Flint ... The first knives were probably broken pieces of flint with a conchoidal fracture exposing sharp edges.

Chitel ... The smaller of the two Indian and SE Asian deer that furnish antler for the knife industry; these are all shed horn harvested in the jungle by natives.

Choil ... The cut away area in front of the guard of some fixed blade knives, it may be large enough to fit a finger or very tiny cut out area.

Chromium ... Produces hardness and better edge holding when combined with other alloying materials. Aids rust resistance also.

Cinquedea ... A 15th Century Italian dagger very wide at the hilt, means five fingers wide.

Claymore ... A Scottish two-handed sword.

Clip Point Blade ... A blade on which the back line breaks and slants downward to produce a finer and more useful point.

Concealex ... An extremely tough thermoplastic used for sheath manufacture.

Congress Pattern ... An old pen and pocket knife shape, made with two or four blades, generally a pen blade and a larger sheepfoot blade, or two of each.

Cordura ... A very tough high-density Nylon used for sheath manufacture.

Cryogenic Quenching ... A modern addition to heat treating tool steels. After the normal heat treat the steel is lowered in temperature very low.

Cutlery Steel ... Any steel with enough alloying materials that enable it to make good knives.

Cutlass ... A curved blade sword sharp on one edge with a strong cover for the hand used on naval vessels in the 18th and 19th Centuries.

Dagger ... A stilleto shaped blade, normally double-edged but can be single edged.

Damascus ... Two types of steel folded repeatedly during the forging process to produce a very attractive, and very expensive steel which retain the properties of the two parent steels.

Desert Ironwood ... Native to the Sonoran desert in northern Mexico. A very dense tight grained wood, highly polished, darkens with age.

Diamond Cross Section Blade ... Most often found in a stiletto or rapier blade.

Dirk ... The Scottish Dirk is a single edged dagger (a descendent of the Kidney Dagger), and was used as a left hand dagger whilst the right hand held a broadsword.

Drop Forged ... Or "Closed Die Forging", the form of the finished item is made into the die, the steel is heated and the hammer forms the molten steel into the recesses of the die.

Drop Point ... A blade design made popular in handmade hunting knives originally by Bob Loveless and Randall. Probably the most useful hunting blade configuration of all time.

Eared Dagger ... Originating in Venice from Oriental predecessors the Eared Dagger was distinguished by two round plates set an angle to each other at the pommel.

False Edge ... An unsharpened area on the spine of the blade that has been designed to give the impression that it is sharp, decorative only.

Fibre Glass ... A thermoplastic material improved by adding chopped glass fibers, adds great strength.

Flat Ground ... The surface of the blade is flat from or near the back of the blade to the beginning of the sharpening bevel.

Framelock ... A safety device which locks the blade in the open position using a pre-stressed section of the handle, preventing accidental or premature closure.

Full-Tang ... The blade extends for the full-length and width of the handle.

G-10 ... An epoxy filled woven glass composite reinforced with glass fibre that gives exceptional strength, yet remains lightweight. Tactile and grippy.

GV6-H Fibresin ... Swiss made virtually bullet-proof polymer, yet lightweight.

Half-Tang ... The blade extends for the half of the length or width of the handle.

High Carbon Steel ... A lovely steel, easy to sharpen, great edge retention and a good level of overall sharpness. Discolours naturally, and will rust rather quickly if not cared for properly.

Interframe ... A handle made of two different types of materials, one inlaid inside the other. Normally found on folding knives.

Kraton ... A thermoplastic polymer which feels tough but rubbery.

Kydex ... An extremely tough thermoplastic used for sheath manufacture.

Linerlock ... A safety device which locks the blade in the open position using a cutaway section of the liner, preventing accidental or premature closure.

Micarta ... Linen or paper fabric in an eposy resin. Very tough, durable and pretty. Normally expensive, and often hand-polished to a fine lustre.

Rear Lock ... A safety device which locks the blade in the open position using a lock spring, preventing accidental or premature closure. Often referred to as a front lock or centrelock depending upon the location of the lock release button.

Scale ... The handle material applied to the side of a knife.

Spine-Tang ... The unsharpened portion of a fixed blade knife which extends into the handle in a tapered fashion.

Stainless Steel ... Not rustproof, but simply "Stains Less". An alloy with greater corrosion resistance than ordinary steels.

Talonite ... Talonite is a Cobalt Chromium alloy, a member of the Haynes Alloy family, that has been treated with a new hot rolling age hardening process. The advantages this creates are increased wear resistance, increased hardness, and improved machining characteristics. Talonite contains hardly any steel, so it can be difficult to detect with conventional metal detectors.

Tang ... The unsharpened portion of a blade.

Titanium ... Incredibly advanced and complex alloy used for handles. Expensive, very lightweight but incredibly strong and resistant to just about everything!

Tool Steel ... An incredibly tough steel with outstanding levels of edge retention and overall sharpness. Will rust if not cared for properly, and can be difficult to resharpen without the right professional sharpening equipment.

Zytel ... A type of impact-resistant, lightweight and extremely strong polymer.