The Republic of Heaven

How does it not cut through the sheath that holds it????

I expect the makers of the knife designed a sheath so that it held the knife in such a way that the blade never came into contact with the sheath.

I'm sure you have a lot of questions but why don't you put them all into one post, instead of spamming the whole forum? You are courting a warning and possibly a ban at this rate.

Please read the Forum Guide before you post further.

Page 186, US edition (Tower of Angels chapter): "The old man handed him a leather sheath, backed with stiff horn, with buckles to hold the knife in place, because the slightest sideways movement of the blade would have cut through the thickest leather."

You would want to be careful removing and fitting to the sheath, as you could still do damage when it's not secured in place.

As an aside, did I miss it, or is there no actual description of the cut that took off Will's fingers?

As an aside, did I miss it, or is there no actual description of the cut that took off Will's fingers?

No, there isn't. I looked hard for it.

As an aside, did I miss it, or is there no actual description of the cut that took off Will's fingers?

No, there isn't. I looked hard for it.

Indeed, I rpesume its when Will is pushing him back towards the glass.

Damn, im sorry, didnt think it made sense to put different questions based on completely different parts of the book into one post

I dont see why its such a big deal that i ask 3 or 4 different questions??

If you think its cuz i want to raise my post count to get a "title name" or w/e given to me, i could give two ~*pineapples*~ about that, i just was curious about some stuff, my bad.

I expect the makers of the knife designed a sheath so that it held the knife in such a way that the blade never came into contact with the sheath.

I'm sure you have a lot of questions but why don't you put them all into one post, instead of spamming the whole forum? You are courting a warning and possibly a ban at this rate.

Please read the Forum Guide before you post further.

There's the Quick Question thread for small questions.

Page 186, US edition (Tower of Angels chapter): "The old man handed him a leather sheath, backed with stiff horn, with buckles to hold the knife in place, because the slightest sideways movement of the blade would have cut through the thickest leather."

I remember reading that too, but what confused me while reading was how that worked when Will picked up the broken pieces and carried them around until he met up with Iorek to fix the knife. How did the individual pieces not cut through the sheath, since they were no longer held in place by the buckles?

Page 186, US edition (Tower of Angels chapter): "The old man handed him a leather sheath, backed with stiff horn, with buckles to hold the knife in place, because the slightest sideways movement of the blade would have cut through the thickest leather."

I remember reading that too, but what confused me while reading was how that worked when Will picked up the broken pieces and carried them around until he met up with Iorek to fix the knife. How did the individual pieces not cut through the sheath, since they were no longer held in place by the buckles?

Presumably it is no longer as sharp in its broken state. Otherwise it would not have been enough for Will to break the knife in TAS, as he could then still cut between worlds with the fragments.

Presumably it is no longer as sharp in its broken state. Otherwise it would not have been enough for Will to break the knife in TAS, as he could then still cut between worlds with the fragments.

I agree that he could no longer use the knife fragments to cut into another world, but I think the fragments were still definitely sharp enough to cut through a sheath since he was excrutiatingly careful when collecting them.

The sharp, cut-through-anything side of the blade was different than the cut-to-another-world side of the blade. I think it was still easily sharp enough to go through the sheath, his fingers, etc.

the answer to why the knife doesn't cut through the sheath when it is broken is in the Amber Spyglass, it mentions Iorek telling Will to join the atoms together, which could represent that the atoms got disloged meaning they weren't as sharp anymore

I tend to look at it this way:

A knife when broken is not a knife anymore, it is just something sharp that cuts, and something that is solid that you can hold.

Similarly, the subtle knife when broken is no longer the subtle knife, it is just very very bloody sharp... it cannot perform its major function which is to open a window between worlds (In the same way as a piece of glass can cut, but it cannot technically perform the same function as a knife... you wouldnt cut up your steak using a fragment of window )

I guess the thingwith the sheath can be a bit misleading, but like with any normal knife, you break it and you're gonna get bits that arent as sharp as they were just bits of metal that were joined on to others... in a big pile they might not be able to cut through a leather sheath as they lose much of their cutting power as others have said before me.

An interestring point, something i might add is that the pieces of knife aren't having any weight pushed on them that might make them go through the leather


appologise for the grammer

Presumably it is no longer as sharp in its broken state. Otherwise it would not have been enough for Will to break the knife in TAS, as he could then still cut between worlds with the fragments.

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the answer to why the knife doesn't cut through the sheath when it is broken is in the Amber Spyglass, it mentions Iorek telling Will to join the atoms together, which could represent that the atoms got disloged meaning they weren't as sharp anymore

+

I tend to look at it this way:

A knife when broken is not a knife anymore, it is just something sharp that cuts, and something that is solid that you can hold.

Similarly, the subtle knife when broken is no longer the subtle knife, it is just very very bloody sharp... it cannot perform its major function which is to open a window between worlds (In the same way as a piece of glass can cut, but it cannot technically perform the same function as a knife.

= A wizard done it

= A wizard done it

A wizard??? We'll have none of that Harry Pottery wizardy nonsense here we only want pure cloud-pine using sexy scantily clad witchies!! (Or, maybe thats just me!)

owatts93darkmaterials fan I agree, thats kinda something I was trying to say but you said it much more clearly! (I am far too wordy!). Oh and by the way your grammar was perfect

Oh and to actually contribute something more to the discussion... presumably it could be argued that the knife works so well in cutting everything, including between worlds, because it is able to manipulate \ cut elementary particles and it is not in fact technically working as a normal knife at all (Think about Deaths scythe from Discworld, the sharpness of the blade extending beyond the physical blades edge).

If you think about it, all the regular elementary particles make up all the physical and material objects we know in our world, and Dust is described as an elementary particle in TSK. So, going back to my knife theory, when broken pehaps the knife is incapable of manipulating \ cutting these particles to the same degree because whatever the alchemists at the Torre Degli Angeli did to create it ceases to work with a shattered knife.