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From John Stanley Antique Tools -

Many old time loggers had crooked knives that they used during the long winter months while they were in the woods camps. They were used for general carving as well as making axe handles, spruce gum boxes for their lady friends and other carving projects.A superb item for you to add to your collection. A quick google search turned up the following-

The Native-American Mocotaugan / Couteau Croche / Crooked Knife

The CROOKED KNIFE is a one-handed draw knife and was an invention of the woodland Native-Americans who were canoe, sled, and snowshoe builders. Because it is most often associated with carving the wooden ribs and other parts for canoes, it is sometimes called a “canoe knife.” Among the several nations of the Abenaqui (Abenaki), who were the predominant Algonquian people of New England, New Brunswick and the Canadian Maritimes, the crooked knife is called the bikahtagenigan (bee-kah-tah-gen-i-gan). Prominent among them as canoe builders are the Penobscot. Among the more western Algonquian people, whose most northern nation is the Cree, the crooked knife is called a mocotaugan. The most numerous of the Algonquian people are the Ojibwe, some of whom call the crooked knife a wagikoman, but most of whom call the crooked knife by the same word as the Cree, mocotaugan.

From its shape French-Canadians call the knife “le couteau croche,” which translates directly to English as “the crooked knife.” The one-handed draw knife need not have any turn-up at the end of its blade, but if it does, as many of them do—hence its name in French and English—it may be used as a gouge to carve cups, bowls and spoons. But experience with the knife shows that there is a practical reason for many crooked knives to have a blade that is upswept at its end, even if the knife is never used as a gouge: the blade will not dig its end into the wood. This is appreciated when one shaves the blade of a canoe paddle, which is wider than the length of the knife and must be shaved from both edges of each flat side, which means two edges with the grain and two against it—unless (which is unlikely) both a left-hand and a right-hand knife are used and the wood is shaved from top to bottom and from bottom to top, according as the wood is grained. The upswept blade is particularly appreciated when shaving wood against the grain. Also, the slight upsweep of the blade enables a smooth release of the shaving that is removed and allows a better control of the blade as one changes the direction or placement of the blade from one shaving to another. Curiously, many illustrations of a crooked knife being used show the upswept tip of the blade shaving wood, but that would be done only for gouging, not shaving, a piece of wood.

The principal characteristic of the crooked knife is that it is used without a vise or other means of holding the wood that is being carved, such as a shaving horse (“chevalet planet” in French), or a wedge against a solid object. That means that a worker holds a piece of wood in one hand and shaves or carves it with the tool held in his other hand. Therefore, the blades are shaped and sharpened so that they are specialized for a right-handed or a left-handed user, that is, the bevel is always on the upper side of the blade; the bottom side that is against the wood is flat. So the blade is sharpened like a scissors blade. The blade is hafted so that the wielding hand is supinated, or nearly so; that is, the haft is held and the knife is drawn towards the chest with the palm held upward. Accordingly, such a knife is very safe to use, since only small shavings are removed at the strokes and the tool is never “crowded” to remove more than the hand which holds the work can brace easily against the stroke.