I’ve got one word for you - ice dagger.
The reason I posted this in General Questions was to get away from the CSI jokes. Anyone have any real information that pertains to the topic of this thread?
Technically that’s two words.
Here’s a lengthy (49 page) report on criminal forensics of knives and saws. I haven’t had time to read it yet, but it may have some of the info you’re asking.
A brief quote:
Thank you. I’ll check it out when I get home(Can’t open pdfs at work.)
On the other hand, weapons like these are very easy to acquire-they can be found at gun knife shows, and at science fiction and fantasy conventions. In fact, the latter two are likely to have hand-forged weaponry that won’t be found in any catalog and are thus totally untraceable.
Very interesting. It deals mostly with sawing off body parts, and how to tell if a knife was used or a saw and, if a saw was used, what kind. Doesn’t really get into the stabby part of my question, but it’s a useful and somewhat easy to understand guide.
Glad it’s a start.
Here’s some more:
http://forensicmed.webnode.com/wounds/sharp-force-trauma/stab-wounds/
I was going to do some speculating, but actual information has been presented, so I will just read instead. I noted the comments about having tried injecting latex to get a mold of the wound that has not been very successful.
Those knives all have unusual features. Curvature of the blade may be possible to determine. In particular about the double lock-back knife you have, depending upon the angle and depth of the wound, it may be identifiable that there are two tips. The serrations along the blade edges may leave marks on the wound edges. Comparing depth of wounds to length of wounds will give some indication of whether the blade is long and thin or short and wide.
I find it very suspicious that you had these links readily available, Prof. Pepperwinkle, if that is, in fact, your real name.
Just because I’m not allowed to play with sharp objects, doesn’t mean I don’t know about them…
And minions do have their uses.
So, width of blade, depth of wound, type of blade (serrated, double vs single etc) are all common info. Those are in many coroners reports.
If, indeed, it was some super VIP that was killed, then yes, they could get more info. There would be some traces of the metal, maybe.
Altho they could quite easily match or no-match a given weapon found in a perps possession, I have never heard of a case being cracked by figuring out what sort of unusual edged weapon it was then tracking down who bought it.
Of course, this often doesn’t even work with guns as “It got stolen” pretty much ends the trail, unless it’s your perp.
I think the fact that the only lights in the whole office are a few desk lamps should tell you all you need to know.
(I wonder how many crimes the Las Vegas police department could solve by seeing what the CSIs had dropped on the floor)