A sticking knife is primarily an agricultural tool. Sticking knives resemble dagger

Dagger

A dagger is a fighting knife with a sharp point designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon. The design dates to human prehistory, and daggers have been used throughout human experience to the modern day in close combat confrontations...

s in shape and function, but are made for the utilitarian purpose of "sticking" or bleeding out livestock

Livestock

Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...

 in home butchering. In some cases the animal would die directly from blood loss, where in others the animal would be killed beforehand and hung by the hind legs to bleed out.

A sticking knife usually consists of a double edge pointed blade

Blade

A blade is that portion of a tool, weapon, or machine with a cutting edge and/or a pointed tip that is designed to cut and/or puncture, stab, slash, chop, slice, thrust, or scrape animate or inanimate surfaces or materials...

 approximately six inches long. Blades are traditionally made of high carbon steel (such as 1095). Handles are simple, consisting usually of two hardwood

Hardwood

Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees . It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.Hardwood contrasts with softwood...

 scales riveted through the full, flat blade tang

Tang (weaponry)

A tang or shank is the back portion of a tool where it extends into stock material or is connected to a handle as on a knife, sword, spear, arrowhead, chisel, screwdriver, etc...

. Sticking knives generally lack any kind of guard.

Few companies continue to produce sticking knives. Firearm

Firearm

A firearm is a weapon that launches one, or many, projectile at high velocity through confined burning of a propellant. This subsonic burning process is technically known as deflagration, as opposed to supersonic combustion known as a detonation. In older firearms, the propellant was typically...

s have generally replaced the sticking knife in home livestock processing. Most slaughterhouse

Slaughterhouse

A slaughterhouse or abattoir is a facility where animals are killed for consumption as food products.Approximately 45-50% of the animal can be turned into edible products...

s use humane killers, which project a steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

 rod through the skull of the animal. Because sticking knives are so infrequently used, a home butcher

Butcher

A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...

 may choose another type of knife that would serve other purposes as well. A boning knife

Boning knife

A boning knife is a type of kitchen knife with a sharp point and narrow blade. It is used in food preparation for removing the bones of poultry, meat, and fish. Generally 12 cm to 17 cm in length it features a very narrow blade...

 or narrow hunting knife

Hunting knife

A hunting knife is a knife used during hunting for preparing the game to be used as food: skinning the animal and cutting up the meat. It is different from the Hunting dagger which was traditionally used to kill wild game....

 is commonly used in place of the more specialized sticking knife.

The Ontario cutlery

Cutlery

Cutlery refers to any hand implement used in preparing, serving, and especially eating food in the Western world. It is more usually known as silverware or flatware in the United States, where cutlery can have the more specific meaning of knives and other cutting instruments. This is probably the...

 company continues to produce traditional sticking knives in their "old hickory" knife line. Some people may still want a sticking knife for chores other than slaughtering

Animal slaughter

Slaughter is the term used to describe the killing and butchering of animals, usually for food. Commonly it refers to killing and butchering of domestic livestock ....

 livestock. Although double edged blades are usually considered by law enforcement as weapons, in situations where they are acceptable they have a few advantages. Having twice the edge length of a single edge knife they can be used longer between sharpenings. This advantage may be offset however because the thumb of the cutting hand can't press against the spine of the blade. With a single edged blade thumb pressure is often exerted for heavy cutting chores.

Sticking knives are generally inexpensive and rugged, making them a viable choice for gardeners, farmer

Farmer

A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...

s and sportsmen.