The book gives the reader a complete understanding of the most ancient companion of man throughout history - the knife, its varieties, materials, forms and applications. This is the second, corrected and significantly expanded, especially in the number and quality of illustrations, edition, which included many author's photographs , not previously presented. The reliability and quality of the material is evidenced by only one fact: the first edition of the book is included by some law schools in the list of compulsory literature for study, i.e., it is equated to textbooks.