Cane knife
{{Short description|Large hand-wielded cutting tool}}
A cane knife is a large hand-wielded cutting tool similar to a machete.{{cite book |first=Beth |last=Hanson |chapter=Chapter 3 - Tools & Techniques: Chemical-free Weed Controls |title=Invasive Plants: Weeds of the Global Garden |publisher=Brooklyn Botanic Garden |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-945352-95-2 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/invasiveplantswe0000rand/page/14 |access-date=2008-02-08 |page=[https://archive.org/details/invasiveplantswe0000rand/page/14 14] |chapter-url-access=registration }} 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.
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Design
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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 {{convert|1|mm|in}} thick, thinner than a machete or bolo, and more than {{convert|12|in|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
File:Sugar cane knife, 1800s, Danish West Indies.jpg|Sugar cane knife, 1800s, used by enslaved Africans to cut sugar cane in the Danish West Indies
File:Queen Mary Thomas.png| 1888 drawing of "Queen Mary" Thomas, one of the leaders of the 1878 Fireburn riot in St. Croix, holding a cane knife and torch
File:Evstafiev-zafra.jpg|A sugar cane cutter in Cuba during zafra
File:StateLibQld 2 108660 Canecutters at Ayr, ca. 1907.jpg | Canecutters in Ayr, Australia c.1907
File:Female workers at the sugar plantage,Barbados (6816658765).jpg| Female cane cutters in Barbados, 2011
File:Cane knife.jpg|A well-used cane knife
File:Old cane knife - 1811 Kid Ory Historic House, LaPlace, Louisiana.jpg|Old cane knife in south Louisiana, of the type that was the most common weapon in the 1811 German Coast uprising.
See also
References
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