stiletto

Stiletto

A stiletto is a short knife or dagger with a long slender blade of various designs primarily used as a stabbing weapon. Its narrow shape, ending in a rigid pointed end, allows it to penetrate deeply. Most stilettos are not suited for cutting, even with edged examples. A typical early stiletto was a one-piece cast-metal handle and blade, which was then hammer-forged in a V-groove anvil, producing a triangular blade cross section without any sharpened edges. Other examples have round, square, and diamond cross sections.

The word stiletto may sometimes be used in American English to refer to a switchblade. Stiletto may also be used specifically for a knife exhibiting the same triangular cross-section and hollow grind as a small sword, rapier, or épée.

History

The Italian word "stiletto" comes from the Latin stilus meaning: "a stake; a pointed instrument".^[1] The stiletto, also called misericordie ("mercy") began to gain fame during the High Middle Ages, when it was the secondary weapon of knights.^[2] It was used to finish off a fallen or severely wounded heavily armoured opponent. The thin blade could easily pass through most mail or find its way through tiny gaps in a knight's plate armour. A severely wounded opponent, who was not expected to survive, would be given a "mercy strike" (French coup de grace), hence the name misericorde. Later the Gunner's Stiletto became a tool for clearing cannon-fuse touch holes; used in the manner of an automotive oil dipstick, they were often scribed with marks indicating levels of powder charges for ranging distance.^[3]

The World Wars

F-S

Hand to hand combat in the trenches of World War I created a new need for stilettos. Several versions were made by various countries, often grouped together in one class, nicknamed the trench knife.^[4] Likewise, World War II saw a resurgence of the stiletto style in the form of several variants including the, U.S. Marine Raider Stiletto, Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife and V-42 combat knife.^[5]

1950s folding knives

Collectors often refer to the handle and cross guard style found on Italian 1950's folding picklock switchblades as a stiletto.^[6] The blade options included dagger blades, clip points, bayonet points and wavy Indonesian style kriss blades. Early 1950s stilettos had thick blades in proportion to the height and length, resembling the renaissance knife, making them desirable. Modern production Italian knives of this style tend to have conventional thin flat blades, and are rarely hollow ground.^[7]

Colloquial and literary uses

In American English, the term stiletto occasionally refers to a switchblade which has a telescoping blade.^[6] A popular brand of switchblade of this type manufactured in the 1950s was branded "Rizzuto Estileto Milano." Although use of the word "stiletto" to refer to small, pointed daggers far outdates references to switchblades, as stiletto itself is a loanword from Italian—a diminutive of stilo, for stylus or dagger, from the Latin stilus.^[8] The word "stiletto" was also trademarked in the early 20th century for a brand of woodworking tools. Additionally, a stiletto heel is a type of woman's shoe with a particularly long and thin high heel.

Films

• In the film Gladiator, a stiletto is used by Commodus to stab Maximus.
• In the Japanese movie Ichi the Killer, Kakihara tortures many victims using stilettos.
• In Red Dragon, Dr. Hannibal Lector stabs Will Graham in the stomach with a stiletto.
• A stiletto is the weapon of choice used by 'The Needle' in Ken Follett's best seller Eye of the Needle, which tells the story of a German spy in World War II.

References