The image for Day 278 of the VM_365 project is of a medieval iron knife found in a layer of medieval occupation debris including 13th to 14th century pottery sherds found in investigations carried out during road improvements between St Nicholas at Wade and Monkton in Thanet between 1990 and 1991.

The knife has a whittle tang which means that a wooden handle would have been knocked over the tang, rather than having a two piece handle rivetted onto a wide tang, an innovation that became more popular from the mid medieval period onwards.

This was an all purpose knife that could be used for eating, working and for defence and was a development from the Anglo Saxon scramasax, probably carried in a leather sheath at the waist.