Snow knife

A bone snow knife with an ulu in the background

A metal bladed snow knife

A snow knife or snow saw (Inuktitut: pana^[1]) is a tool used in the construction of igluit (snow houses) by the Inuit people of the Arctic or as a weapon. The snow knife was originally made from available materials such as bone or horn but the Inuit adapted to using metal after the arrival of Europeans.^[2]

Historical descriptions

The American Association for the Advancement of Science noted in 1883:

The only instrument used in the construction of the igloo is the snow-knife. Where the Inuits [sic] have intercourse with white men, they barter for cheese-knives or long-bladed butcher-knives, remove the double-handle from the tang, and put on a single one about three times as long, which can be readily grasped by both hands. The old knives were made of reindeer-horn or from the shin-bone of the reindeer.

Among the Esquimaux in and around King William's Land I found snow-knives made of copper stripped from Sir John Franklin's ships, the imprints of the queen's broad arrow still showing on many, the blades double-edged or dagger-shape, and the handles of musk-ox and reindeer horn rudely attached by sinew lashings.

The snow-knife of iron, while more convenient in many ways, is far more liable to break in the intense cold of the winter weather, such accidents with them being very common. I have seen igloos built when the thermometer registered −70°F. At such temperatures the snow becomes almost stone-like in its compactness. The snow-knife is often used as a substitute for the snow-tester whenever that instrument is broken or left behind, for the Esquimaux are a very careless and absentminded people.^[2]

References