The penny knife was a originally a simple 18th century
utility knife
A utility knife is any type of knife used for general manual work purposes.Peterson, Harold L., ''Daggers and Fighting Knives of the Western World'', London: Herbert Jenkins Ltd., , p. 1 Such knives were originally fixed-blade knives with d ...
with a fixed
blade
A blade is the portion of a tool, weapon, or machine with an edge that is designed to puncture, chop, slice or scrape surfaces or materials. Blades are typically made from materials that are harder than those they are to be used on. Histor ...
. It got the name ''penny knife'' because it cost 1 penny in England and America towards the end of the 18th century.
The famous ''Fuller's Penny Knife'' helped gain the reputation of
Sheffield, England
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire an ...
, cutlers in the
pre-industrial era of the early 18th century.
Description
The ''penny knife'' later evolved into a basic, mass-produced
pocketknife
A pocketknife is a knife with one or more blades that fold into the handle. They are also known as jackknives (jack-knife), folding knives, or may be referred to as a penknife, though a penknife may also be a specific kind of pocketknife. A ty ...
with a folding blade, which pivoted freely in and out of the handle without a backspring or other device to hold it in position (other than the frictional pressures of the knife handle). This type of knife was popular with farmers in the United States, England, France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain for much of the 19th and part of the 20th century, and consequently is often called a ''farmer knife'', ''sodbuster knife'', or ''peasant knife''.
[''The Youth's Companion'', Boston, MA: Perry Mason & Co., Vol. 52, No. 1 (2 January 1879), p. 108]
Antique penny knives have increased in value and can sell for up to US $500 or 400 Euros.
In modern production, the smallest models of the
Opinel
The Opinel company has manufactured and marketed a line of eponymous wooden-handled knives since 1890 from its headquarters in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, Savoie, France where the family-run company also operates a museum dedicated to its knives. ...
, a late 19th-century peasant's knife, continue to use this basic design, consisting of a folding blade pivoting on an axle mounted through a steel-bolstered wooden handle.
The Svord company from New Zealand also sells a range of simple, folding 'peasant knives'.
See also
*
Penknife
Penknife, or pen knife, is a British English term for a small folding knife. Today the word ''penknife'' is the common British English term for both a pocketknife, which can have single or multiple blades, and for multi-tools, with additional too ...
*
Higonokami
A is a type of folding pocket knife originating in Miki, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan in 1896. The knife has no locking system, but is a friction folder or "penny knife", using the friction of the swivel or the pressure of the user's thumb on it ...
References
{{Knives
Pocket knives