Stiletto be employed along with the dagger as a fighting weapon; a 1536 dueling treatise authored by Achille Marozzo, "Opera Nova", contains sections on dagger and stiletto fighting. By the time of the Renaissance, the term stiletto had come to describe a range of slender thrusting knives closely resembling the French poignard, many with conventional dagger-profile blades and sharpened edges, but always retaining the slim profile and needle-like point. To lighten the weapon, many stilettos were equipped with blades carrying fullers over a portion of their length. The stiletto remained a popular weapon of criminals or political assassins from the 16th
High heel policy advent of the stiletto heel fashion." When stiletto heels were first sold in Africa, many of the wearers fell through the floors of their homes, not realizing that the floor timbers had been partly removed by termites. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service claimed in 1963 that "with style changes the stiletto-heel problem has diminished". High heels can represent contributory negligence by the plaintiff in American personal injury cases involving slip and fall accidents. Many high heel policies in the US are related to concerns over the potential for legal claims. Some women have challenged the expectation that women