• Recoiling nature of the skin

  • Rocking of the blade while within the injury

  • Angular stabs

  • Angular pull outs

  • Struggling victim

  • Twisting knives

  • Multiple stabs through the same injury

  • The tissue plane being stabbed interferes with the interpretation of the weapon

     e.g.

                Stab wound gapes more across it's width and shortens in length when injury is across to the long axis of limbs.

This is shown here where a>b and X>Y.

In contrast to that the length is more and the gape is less when along the long axis of limbs

Therefore the exact width of the knife cannot be judged correctly