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The ulu is a broad, crescent-shaped knife with a handle mounted on top of the blade rather than at one end, a design that concentrates cutting force downward through a rocking motion rather than the forward slicing action of a conventional knife. The word comes from Inuktitut ulu, simply meaning 'knife' in the most general sense, though in English usage it has come to refer specifically to this distinctive curved form. Archaeological evidence places the ulu in the Arctic toolkit at least four thousand years ago, with slate and chert versions found at pre-Dorset sites across northern Canada and Alaska dating to roughly 2500 BCE. The blade's crescent shape is not ornamental but functional: the curved edge allows the user to rock the knife back and forth with one hand while holding the material being cut with the other, an action ideally suited to the heavy work of processing marine mammals on uneven surfaces of ice or rock.

The ulu was traditionally the domain of women in Inuit society, and this association carried deep cultural weight. A girl received her first ulu from her mother or grandmother, and the quality of a woman's ulu work — the precision of her skin-cutting, the efficiency of her meat processing, the fineness of her sewing preparation — was a measure of her skill and standing. The knife was used to skin and butcher seals, walruses, and caribou; to scrape and soften hides for clothing; to trim sinew thread for sewing; to cut blocks of snow for igloo construction; and to prepare food. It was, in practical terms, the most versatile tool in the Arctic household, and its operator was the person who transformed raw materials into the products that kept a family alive. European observers frequently misunderstood this division of labor, assuming that the men's hunting tools were more prestigious, but within Inuit culture the ulu-wielding woman was the essential transformer of the hunt's raw yield into usable goods.

The ulu's blade evolved through distinct material phases that mirror the broader technological history of the Arctic. The earliest ulus were ground from slate, a stone that could be shaped into a thin, sharp edge through patient abrasion. Later versions used chert, nephrite jade (traded from distant sources), and eventually iron obtained through trade with Norse Greenlanders and later European whalers. The arrival of iron dramatically improved the ulu's cutting performance without changing its fundamental shape — a testament to how thoroughly optimized the crescent design already was. Contact-era ulus often featured blades cut from saw blades, barrel hoops, or other scrap iron, mounted in handles of bone, antler, or driftwood. The material changed; the geometry did not. This stability is remarkable in the history of tool design and speaks to the ulu's perfect adaptation to its intended tasks.

The ulu has become one of the most recognizable symbols of Inuit culture, appearing on the coat of arms of Nunavut (Canada's newest territory, established in 1999), on postage stamps, and in museum collections worldwide. It is also produced commercially as a kitchen knife, marketed to non-Inuit consumers who discover that the rocking-blade design is genuinely superior for chopping herbs, mincing vegetables, and dicing pizza — tasks for which the Italian mezzaluna, a similar crescent-bladed tool, has long been used. The resemblance between the ulu and the mezzaluna is a case of convergent design: two cultures separated by thousands of miles and years independently arrived at the same optimal shape for rocking-blade cutting. The ulu's journey from Arctic survival tool to gourmet kitchen accessory is a smaller, quieter version of the kayak's journey from hunting vessel to recreational sport, and it carries the same implicit question about what is preserved and what is lost when a tool is separated from the culture that created it.