Stiletto designed the Fairbairn–Sykes fighting knife, a double-edged dagger with a long narrow point designed to optimize the blade for thrusting, though it was also capable of slashing strokes if the cutting edges were sharpened. Other variations of the F-S knife soon emerged, including the U.S. Marine Raider Stiletto, which was based upon the Fairbairn-Sykes knife, and the U.S. V-42 stiletto, designed from the outset to emphasize thrusting over cutting. During the 1950s, large numbers of folding switchblade or automatic opening knives with locking blades were imported from Italy to the United States. Most of these switchblades were side-opening designs, though
What a piece of work is a man What a piece of work is a man "What a piece of work is man!" is a phrase within a soliloquy by Prince Hamlet in William Shakespeare's play of the same name. Hamlet is reflecting, at first admiringly, and then despairingly, on the human condition. The soliloquy, spoken in the play by Prince Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Act II, Scene 2, follows in its entirety. Rather than appearing in blank verse, the typical mode of composition of Shakespeare's plays, the speech appears in straight prose: Hamlet is saying that although humans may appear to think and act "nobly"