In 1929 a French cutler named his new export knife after a Melanesian spirit of doom — and tanked the launch in the exact market it was designed for. The knife survived anyway. Six parts, folded steel, one family, one town, nearly a century of continuous production: the full story of the Douk-Douk, its variants, its complicated colonial history, ...

Most Americans can legally own an automatic knife — a fact decades of movie mythology have obscured. We break down what the 1958 Federal Switchblade Act actually does (it's a trade law, not a possession ban), which states still restrict autos, why assisted-opening knives aren't switchblades, and why a retailer sometimes can't ship one to your address.