Knife Glossary

Advertising Knife

A knife with promotional material (company name, slogan, product illustration, etc.) printed or stamped on the handles (more rarely, etched on the blade). Usually intended as a premium or give-away item.

You do not have permission to do that

Arkansas Toothpick

A knife with promotional material (company name, slogan, product illustration, etc.) printed or stamped on the handles (more rarely, etched on the blade). Usually intended as a premium or give-away item.

Assisted Opening (Assisted Opener)

A knife in which the blade is held closed by spring pressure (i.e. it has a “bias toward closing”) but which requires only a few degrees of opening to move the blade past the pressure point so that it opens the remainder of the way by spring pressure alone. Offers the quick opening of a switchblade knife but is legally “friendlier” in most areas. First introduced in 1998, by Kershaw (designed by Ken Onion) and Meyerco (designed by Blackie Collins). Pictured knife is a Kershaw Random Task II which employs the Ken Onion-designed SpeedSafe assisted opening mechanism. The original Random Task was Kershaw’s first assisted opener.

Automatic (Knife)

aka. Switchblade. A knife with a button, lever, slide, or other mechanism which, when operated, causes the blade to open by spring pressure without being touched by the operator. See; Assisted Opening.

Folding Knife Patterns

Back Square

Portion of a pocketknife blade’s tang that determines the ‘stop’ position of the blade when fully open. See the illustration of the parts of a blade.

Knife Parts

Balance Knife Pattern

aka Berge Knife. A folding knife with two blades pivoted together but opening from opposite sides of the handle such that when one blade is opened its run-up strikes the run-up of the opposite blade. Therefore, only one blade at a time can be opened fully. Antique balance knives are often premium knives having mother-of-pearl handles, gold bolsters, and sometimes one blade of silver or even gold.

Folding Knife Patterns

Balisong Pattern

See: butterfly knife. (Pictured: classic Balisong knife by Benchmade Knife Co.)

Folding Knife Patterns

Ballet Knife Pattern

A jack knife in the figural shape of a leg (‘leg knife’), incorporating a bottle cap lifter in the heel of the shoe-shaped bolster at its head end. Originated by Utica Cutlery Co.

Folding Knife Patterns

Balloon Jack Pattern

The swell-center version of an equal-end Jack knife; always has rounded bolsters.

Barehead or Bare Head

A jack knife with no cap bolster.

Folding Knife Patterns

Barlow Knife Pattern

1) A barehead regular jack with an extra-long bolster. It is usually a less expensive knife, with plain handles but can occasionally be found with premium handles such as stag or pearl. The common barlow knife is about 3 3/8″ long but “daddy” barlows and “grandaddy” barlows can be five inches long; and “baby” barlows are under 3″.

Folding Knife Patterns

Benchmade

1) A knife which is individually assembled, fitted, and finished from a set of parts which were made in bulk, by machine. Quality mass-produced knives often have some hand work in them so it’s a matter of degree. 2) The trade name of a modern cutlery manufacturer. See: Hand Made.

Berge Knife Pattern

See: Balance knife

Bias-Cut Horn

Pieces of common cattle horn, shaved at an acute angle to display layers of shading and patterning within; used to make handles. (Illustration from Smith’s Key, 1816)

Handle Materials

Bistoury

A type of surgical blade most often found on folding medical instruments. It is long, narrow, and curved, with a rounded or pointed end.

Blade Shapes

Blade

In this context, a cutting tool attached to a handle. In specifying the number of blades in a knife, each tool and attachment counts as a “blade.”

Knife Parts

Blanked Blade

A knife blade stamped, by machine, out of a piece of sheet stock. See: Forged Blade.

Bleeder

The medical tool known as a bleeder, which was used on humans, has a spring-powered fleam blade about 1/4″ wide mounted in a small case with a trigger which releases the blade with force. Multiple spring-powered blades (eight to twelve) set in a metal box with a trigger which releases them all at once are called “scarificators.” See: Fleam, Ink Eraser

Blister Steel

Blister steel is a very old process of hardening iron by forming the iron into thin plates, layering them with charcoal, and re-forging them into a solid mass. Since the charcoal is poorly distributed through the mass it tends to make “blisters” which can leave characteristic voids in the finished product.

Bolo

A heavy brush-chopping knife with a curved blade swelled slightly through the front half. Also, similar military knives with extra-wide blades.

Bolster        

The metal tips at the end(s) of a knife’s handles.  There are dozens of specialized names for the different styles of bolsters. On a jack knife the bolster opposite the blade-pivot end is called the “top”, or “head”, or “cap” bolster.  The bolster at the blade-pivot end is the “bottom” bolster. A jack knife with no cap bolsters is called a “barehead jack.”   A knife with no bolsters is called a “shadow.”

Knife Parts

Bone

Usually the shin-bone from cattle. It is very hard and durable. It can be dyed almost any color, scored mechanically (jigged), or polished smooth. One of the earliest handle materials for knives and still a collector’s favorite today.

Handle Materials

Bone Stag

This is an old manufacturer’s term for jigged bone.

Handle Materials

Bottle Opener Knife

A bottle opener knife is any pen or small jack knife which carries a cork screw or has a cap lifter built into the handle or in one of the knife’s blades. See: Champagne Pattern.

Folding Knife Patterns

Bottom Bolster

The bolster at the bottom end of a jack knife, i.e. where the blade is pivoted. The other end has the “cap,” or “head,” or “top,” bolster.

Knife Parts

Bowie Knife

In modern terms, any large hunting or fighting knife supposed to resemble the knife James Bowie used at the Vidalia Sandbar Fight in 1827. Despite myriad claims, nobody really knows what that knife looked like.

Fixed Blade Types

Bowtie (Bolster)

An integral bolster & cross-guard with short quillons, vaguely resembling a bowtie. Usually found on long thin jack knives, stilettos, etc.

Knife Parts

Boy’s Knife Pattern

A small (3 1/2″ or less) usually single-bladed regular or curved regular jack knife intended for youngsters who weren’t ready for a “serious” knife. They can be well- or cheaply-made but tended to be inexpensive. Often originally accompanied by an attached chain to delay the knife’s inevitable loss.

Folding Knife Patterns

Budding Knife Pattern

See: Grafting Knife and Pecan Budder

Folding Knife Patterns

Butt Cap or Butt

See: pommel

Butterfly Knife Pattern

A springless folding knife with two hollow handles which pivot on opposite sides of the blade’s tang. When closing, each hollow handle rotates 180 degrees completely enclosing the blade. There is a small latch which holds the handles together when open or closed. Butterfly knives are illegal in many jurisdictions. (Pictured: classic Balisong knife by Benchmade Knife Co.)

Folding Knife Patterns

Candle-End Pattern

When one or both ends of a handle (with or without bolsters) is slightly pointed it is called a “candle-end.” This feature is most often found on lobster patterns.

Candle End Jack

Folding Knife Patterns

Canoe Pattern

An equal-end handle die with the side opposite the backspring relieved toward its center-line, leaving the bolsters nearly full, thus giving the impression of a canoe with its turned-up ends. Traditionally, canoes are usually made as two-blade jacks (single or double ended) or as three blade cattle knives. After the collecting era began some were constructed as whittlers and marketed as “canittlers.”

Folding Knife Patterns

Cap Bolster

On a jack knife, the bolster at the head end, opposite the blade-pivot end. If a jack knife does not have a cap bolster, it is called a “barehead jack.”

Without a cap bolster, this is a Barehead Jack.

Knife Parts

Cast Steel

An early method of turning iron into steel, invented in 1742 and last made in the 1960s, it involves melting iron in a sealed crucible with charcoal. Also called crucible steel.

Blade Materials

Catch Bit

A small piece of metal placed between a liner and a blade, (or between the springs in a whittler pattern) to make extra room for another working part. (Illustration from the Winchester Model Drawings notebook, available in our Digital Library)

Knife Parts

Cattle Knife Pattern

A heavy, knife with rounded ends, two springs, and three, or rarely four, blades. A few have three springs and are called “three-spring” cattle knives. One of the blades will be a spey or sheepfoot, and punch blades are common but not required. Most often made on an equal end frame (above), they can also be found in other patterns. A similar blade configuration on a serpentine frame is a Stockman or Stock Knife.

Cattle Knife on Swell Center Serpentine pattern frame

Folding Knife Patterns

Cellarman’s Knife Pattern

A type of fixed-blade rase knife used to mark wine and spirits barrels. See Rase Knife.

Fixed Blade Types

Celluloid

Invented ca. 1870, a tough man-made thermoplastic material, composed of cellulose nitrate and camphor. It can be made transparent and in endless varieties of colors and patterns and has been used to imitate genuine ivory, tortoise shell, and mother of pearl. However, it is highly flammable and poor quality-control in its manufacture can cause it to ramdomly begin to decompose releasing nitric acid vapor. (Therefore, celluloid handled knives should be inspected periodically and never stored in the same area with other knives which can be rusted by the vapor.) It was largely replaced by more stable materials by the mid-20th century but was revived in the 1970s due to collector demand. It is still made today and still has the same problems.

Handle Materials

Chamfer

A beveled area on the edges of the spine of a blade. It makes the forward part of the blade more narrow to aid in penetration and on folders allows access to the nail nicks of blades lying beside it. Also called a swedge. Chamfer is not the same as a “clip” point. See the illustration of the parts of a blade.

Knife Parts

Champagne Knife

A champagne knife is a fixed-blade knife with a curved wire breaker blade to aid in opening a bottle of champagne. See: Champagne Pattern.

Fixed Blade Types

Champagne Pattern

The champagne pattern is a multi-blade knife which carries a blade(s), a corkscrew and a short, claw-like “blade” with file teeth on its inner surface, called a “wire breaker.” Before the modern twist-off wire basket used today to retain the cork in a bottle of champagne, it was necessary to break the wire. Later champagne pattern knives (ca. 1900) often had a modified wire breaker which included a crown cap lifting hook. See: Champagne Knife.

Folding Knife Patterns

Champleve

A decorative technique in which a metal piece is cast with a pattern of small depressions in it. The depressions are filled with colored glass and the entire piece is heated until the glass fuses. See; Cloisonne.

Character Knife

A knife with a picture of a famous person or cartoon character stamped or printed onto a regularly shaped handle. See: Figural Knife

Choil

The choil is a small notch cut into a folding blade just ahead of the kick, where the shoulder meets the cutting edge. See the illustration of the parts of a blade.

Knife Parts

Cigar Box Knife Pattern

A folding- or fixed-blade knife which incorporates a tiny hammer, pry bar, and tack puller. Used to open and re-seal cigar boxes.

Cigar Cutter

Cigars often come with one end completely sealed by the outer tobacco leaf “wrapper” (not the plastic wrapper), which must be cut open or pierced before lighting them. Simply chopping the end off with a blade can crush and split the wrapper and filler making smoking unpleasant due to innumerable bits of loose tobacco getting into the mouth. A cigar cutter is a tool which has a hole into which the cigar’s end is inserted, or other means of supporting the cigar’s end, so as to make a clean cut.

Clasp Jack (Clasp Knife) Pattern

See: Curved Regular Jack

Clasp Knife Pattern

A handle pattern, usually found in large folding hunter sizes, which curves up at the head; the shape may be mostly straight or may swell in its center. The head is sometimes pointed and sometimes bulbous. This is an early pattern derived from the shape of cattle horn and antler used for knife handles. The straighter style is typified by Case’s Buffalo/Bulldog pattern, the swell center style by Case’s xx65 pattern.

Folding Knife Patterns

Cleaned       

A machinist’s term that refers to grinding down the surface of a piece of metal to remove rust and other imperfections.  In knife terminology cleaning or “cleaned” refers to re-grinding the surfaces of a blade to remove traces of corrosion and/or improper sharpening.  Cleaning removes all the original factory surface, any etching, and sometimes even the original contours of the blade, and substantially de-values the knife for serious collectors.  See: Mint.

Clip Point Blade

A blade with a straight or concave slice cut out of the spine at its tip. The cut can be fairly short or extend much of the length of the blade.

Blade Shapes

Cloisonné

A decorative technique in which small wires are bent into a pattern, e.g.flowers, animals, geometrics, etc., and soldered onto an underlying material. The areas between the wires are filled with powdered glass of different colors and the piece is heated until the powder fuses into solid glass. See: Champleve

Handle Materials

Closed Back

A knife in which the back spring(s) is concealed by a cover.

Knife Parts

Cockspur Saw

A small saw which looks like a miniature hacksaw; used for cutting the spurs off fighting cocks so as to replace them with long sharpened blades or spikes called “gaffs.”

Blade Shapes

Coined       

Said of metal handles, typically aluminum, nickel-silver, or brass, struck with a tool (a “die,” hence the term “die-struck”) which imparts a pattern, picture, and/or text (as with a coin).  Usually used on souvenir, commemorative, or advertising knives.  See: Engraving, Etch, and Stamp.   

Coir Knife

A balance knife of South East Asia used by rug weavers. It consists of a leaf-shaped blade and a spike, on opposirte sides, in a bulbous handle.

Folding Knife Patterns

Compass Joint

A wide, circular joint on a pocket knife which looks like the joint on a draftsman’s compass.

Knife Parts

Congress Jack Pattern

An equal-end jack knife with its handle curved down in a slight arc. The blades are on the convex side.

Folding Knife Patterns

Corn Knife Pattern

A corn knife is a small jack knife with a hollow-ground blade, used to trim “corns” off one’s feet. Not to be confused with a “maize knife.”

Folding Knife Patterns

Cotton Sampler Pattern

An agricultural-related knife built on a curved jack frame, the cotton knife was used by cotton buyers to cut a sample from a bail of cotton. The blade is distinctive, having a short section near the tang which is unsharpened and a swelled forward part the size of a teaspoon. Alternately, some cotton knives have a very wide and heavy blade like a rope knife, but often wider at the point or with a slightly more acute point, sometimes etched “Cotton Sampler” or “Cotton Knife.”

Folding Knife Patterns

Covers

See: Handle Scales.

Knife Parts

Crocus Finish

A mirror-like finish on steel achieved by polishing with crocus powder (iron oxide).

Cross Guard

See “Guard”

Knife Parts

Crown Jack Pattern

A jack knife with the ends more-or-less squared off, wider at the cap end and having a slight swell in the middle. The Gunstock Jack is similar, but more exaggerated.

A Gunstock Jack has a similar but more exaggerated shape than a Crown Jack.

Folding Knife Patterns

Crown Pen (Modern) Pattern

Modern crown pens are nearly rectangular and may have octagonal ends (with or without bolsters). This pattern is frequently found with a Closed Back feature.

Folding Knife Patterns

Crown Pen Pattern

The crown handle die has squared ends and usually looks somewhat like a slender barrel, although it can taper somewhat. It can also be swell-centered.

Folding Knife Patterns

Crucible Steel

See: cast steel

Curved Jack Pattern

If a regular jack is curved up – with the blade(s) on the concave side – it is a Curved Jack. If the handle curves down – with the blades on the convex side – it becomes a Congress Jack (if symmetrical), or a Swayback Jack (if tapered).

Folding Knife Patterns

Damascening

Inlaying gold or silver wire into steel.

Damascus Steel

Commonly, laminated steel using layers of different metals fused together so that when polished and etched the layers form visible patterns on the surface. Typically this is Pattern Welded Steel in which the layers are manipulated to achieve different visual patterns. Other varieties include Mosaic Damascus Steel, Powder Damascus Steel, and Crucible Damascus Steel (Wootz) the last of which was the original “Damascus Steel”.

Blade Materials

Delrin®

A modern moldable opaque plastic manufactured by DuPont and often used to simulate jigged bone or stag. It was invented in 1952 and first used on factory knives ca. 1960.

Doctor’s Knife Pattern

See: Physician’s Knife

Folding Knife Patterns

Dog Stripping (Dog Grooming) Knife Pattern

A knife with a blade or blades which have a very fine, short-toothed comb for the grooming of wiry-coated dogs.

Folding Knife Patterns

Dogleg Jack Pattern

A serpentine pen knife that is wider and turns down at the cap end. Not to be confused with jacks that turn up at the cap end, referred to as Reverse Dogleg Jacks.

Turning up at the cap end, this is a Reverse Dogleg Jack.

Folding Knife Patterns

Dog-Leg Pen Pattern

See: Serpentine Pen Knife.

Folding Knife Patterns

Dolphin Lobster Pattern

An un-equal ended candle-end lobster that looks like it has been pinched close to one end. See: Sunfish Lobster.

Folding Knife Patterns

Drop Point Blade

A modern blade shape popularized by R.W. “Bob” Loveless, in which the spine slopes slightly as it approaches the tip and the cutting edge curves upward a greater distance than it does with a Spear Point blade. See: Spear Point Blade.

Blade Shapes

Dynamite Knife Pattern

A knife with tools specifically for attaching the fuse or blasting cap to a stick of dynamite, including a spike, a cap crimper, and a wire cutter.

Easy Open (Notch)

A pair of large cut-outs in a knife’s handles that allow a blade to be pinched between the thumb and fore-finger for opening.  A knife with such cut-outs is called an “easy opener.”  A small groove cut into the inner edge of a liner/handle for access to the pull is called a “nail relief.”

Knife Parts

Electrician’s Knife Pattern

A Jack Knife with a spear-point main blade and an equally long screwdriver / wire-stripper as the second blade. The screwdriver usually has a locking mechanism for safety.

Folding Knife Patterns

Elephant’s Toe Nail Pattern

See: Sunfish. Often erroneously called “Elephant’s Toe” which is rather unappealing.

Folding Knife Patterns

Enamel

Enamel, in this context, means fused glass, although it is often applied to hard, glossy paint. Glass powder, sometimes in colors, is poured onto a metal handle which is then heated until the powder melts and fuses into a solid coating. Beautiful patterns can be achieved using additional techniques such as cloissone and guilloche.

Engine turning

A style of decoration on steel created by using a rotating rod and fine grit to grind shallow, overlapping circles on its surface. It is often done to give a pleasing visual effect to an otherwise unfinished surface. It can also be done with an extremely complicated lathe call a “rose engine.” The Warthers of Ohio are famous for producing blades with this finish. Sometimes referred to as a “Jewelled Finish.”

English Jack Pattern

Premium quality slim, regular, and sleeveboard jacks over 4″ long are often called “English” jacks. They may or may not have a blade lock.

Folding Knife Patterns

Engraving       

Marks made on a surface by cutting into it with a tool, traditionally by hand. Also, the act of making such marks.  Markings on knife blades are rarely engraved; they are usually stamped or etched.  See: Etch and Stamp. 

Equal-End

A handle die in which both ends are mirror images of one another. An Equal End Pen is called a “Senator Pen”.

Folding Knife Patterns

Equal-End Jack Pattern

An equal-end jack has equally-rounded bolsters at both ends and straight, or nearly straight sides. There are wide and very narrow Equal-End Jacks; equal-end pen knives are usually narrow.

Etch

A mark (often a picture or trademark on the face of a blade) made by using acid to dissolve areas of the metal.  Also, the act of making such a mark.  See Engraving and Stamp.

Knife Parts

Eureka Pattern

A swell-center serpentine handle die with the swell on the back-spring side only

Faca de Ponta

An Indian trade knife of South America.

Little Mesters

In Sheffield, England, a little mester was an independent artisan who had his own shop or rented space in a factory and produced cutlery and other products. Sometimes they formed associations and produced parts for one another. (Lobster knife by Sheffield Little Mester Stan Shaw.)

A 1973 Sowbelly by the most famous Sheffield Little Mester of all, Stan Shaw.

Factor

In the cutlery industry a factor was an individual who contracted with outworkers (independent artisans) who made knives to his specifications and bearing his mark.

Farmer’s Clasp Knife

A large, light-weight folding knife with no bolsters, a pattern of Germanic origin. Typified by Case’s “Sodbuster” pattern. Occasionally produced with a locking device.

Folding Knife Patterns

Farmer’s Jack

A double-end jack knife similar to a large Wharncliffe handle pattern. It always carries a pruning blade and a spey blade. Sometimes known as a “Rooster Comb.”

Folding Knife Patterns

Farrier’s Knife

A farrier’s knife (often miss-spelled “ferrier” or “furrier”) is a fixed-blade knife with a stout blade the flat tip of which is rolled down into a small gouge for scraping debris from a horse’s hoof prior to shoeing. Folding knives having a hooked tool for that purpose are called “horseman’s knives.”

Fixed Blade Types

Fascine Knife

A short-handled bill-hook, or brush hook, formerly used for cutting fasces, or bundles of sticks used to re-inforce earthworks and ditches.

Fixed Blade Types

Ferrier’s Knife

Mis-spelling of farrier’s knife.

Figural Pattern

Said of a knife that has a handle that is actually shaped like a familiar object, e.g. the popular “shoe” knives that have the shape of an old shoe.  The handles may be stamped or cast in a mold, with realistic details.  A knife with regularly shaped handles which have an image cast, stamped, or printed onto them is not a figural knife.

Folding Knife Patterns

Filework (Fileworked)

Decorative marks usually cut (usually by hand) into a knife’s backspring and/or the spine of the blade.  See: Milled.

Fileworked three blade Sowbelly by Sheffield Little Mester Stan Shaw, made in 1973.

Knife Parts

Fish Gaff Knife Pattern

A specialty pattern for fishermen, made with a long clip blade, a hook disgorger, and a curved gaff hook about 1 1/4″ across, for lifting a fish into the net. The gaff knife has a thick, nearly ninety degree curve at the head end to aid in gripping and pulling.

Folding Knife Patterns

Fish Jack Pattern

A Jack Knife with the blade end rounded and the opposite end slightly flaired and convex; it vaguely resembles a fish. See: Fishtail Jack.

Fish Knife Pattern

The fish knife is a toothpick or tickler frame with a fish scaler, either on the spine of the single blade or as a second blade incorporating a notch at the tip as a hook disgorger. A bottle opener is sometimes built into an extended area of the tang on one of the blades.

Folding Knife Patterns

Fish Scaler

Typically the spine of a blade in a fish knife having an unshapened “saw-tooth” edge used for de-scaling fish. Sometimes it is a separate blade incorporating a hook disgorger at the tip.

Blade Shapes

Fish Slice (Knife)

A knife with a wide, usually heavily decorated, silver-plated blade; formerly used in England to serve fish.

Fishtail Jack Pattern

A long, narrow knife with a flaring cap bolster which resembles a fish’s tail. The bottom bolster often has an integral crossguard. With a guard, the pattern is usually referred to as a Bowtie.

Folding Knife Patterns

Fixed Blade (knife)       

A knife that has a blade which does not fold.

Flat Ground

A blade that has a flat surface from the spine to the cutting edge; i.e. the grind extends all the way to the spine. When there is more than one surface or grind, the blade is Saber/Sabre Ground.

A Sabre Ground Blade

Fleam

A veterinary tool with one to three or more springless blades pivoting in a handle that is essentially a small custom case. The short, double-edged blade is made as an extention on the side of a long tang. Fleam blades 1/2″ wide or more are veterinary instruments. They were struck, on the blade’s spine, with a “bloodstick.” Single, folding fleams are sometimes found mounted next to a liner, and without a spring, in horseman’s knives. Smaller 1/4″ wide “fleams” were for humans. They were usually Spring Lancets: small, spring-powered devices that were cocked and released by a trigger, inflicting the wound suddenly (because nobody would sit still while a blade was hammered into their arm.) See also: Spring Lancet, Scarificator. Do not confuse Ink Erasers with fleams or scalpels.

Fleam Blade

Folding Knife Patterns

Flick (or Wrist Flick) Knife

A knife which can be opened by snapping the wrist outward. In the UK, “Flick Knife” is a more popular term for a switchblade or automatic knife.

Flipper

An assisted-opening knife which has an extension of the tang protruding from the back of the knife’s handle, which when pulled back (“flipped” – like a light switch), moves the blade outward past its bias point causing it to open fully.

Fly Fisherman’s Knife

A special pattern of multi-blade knife for fly fishermen with tools to aid in tying flies, changing one’s tackle set-up and other fishing-related chores. This knife, 4″ long, more or less, is built like a lobster pattern with a long spear or clip main blade, a hook disgorger/file, a thin spike, and a pair of scissors. There is even an extension of the center liner to be used as a screwdriver for adjusting a fishing reel.

Folding Knife Patterns

Folding Bowie or Folding Dirk

A larger (4 1/2″ or more) extra-fancy jack knife made with premium materials and workmanship; usually with a locking blade. While they bear no resemblance to the original Bowie knife (whatever it actually looked like), in the 19th century they were a gentleman’s folding self-defence weapon. See: German Bowie

German Bowie Knife

A folding knife, typically with a locking blade which is longer than the handle, so that when folded, the blade’s unguarded edge protrudes, up to several inches, beyond the end of the handle. Typically carried in a holster, it can be used folded or unfolded.

Folding Hunter

Any large (5″ or greater) jack knife rugged enough to be suitable for serious use by a hunter for field-dressing larger game.

Folding Knife Patterns

Forged Knife

A blade which has been formed by hammering a piece of heated steel into the desired shape, as opposed to a “ground” or “stock removal” blade.

Frame

The assembled liners and bolsters of a folding knife.

Knife Parts

Friend Knife

A 19th century, or older, slot knife with two identical halves. Usually French.

Fruit Knife        

Before the use of stainless steel for knife blades (ca. 1920), knives specially made for cutting fruit had blades made of (or plated with) silver, which will not react with the acid in the fruit juice, as a steel blade does, and cause the fruit to discolor.  These knives often have fancy handles made of decorated silver and/or mother of pearl however, those features alone do not a fruit knife make.  True fruit knives have silver or silver-plated blades.  Some (usually American ones) have an additional folding “seed pick” beside the blade. Fruit knives can be entirely made of ivory or bone – even the spring.  (Note: Small (2 1/2″ +/-) metal handled knives, with a bail for attaching them to a watch chain, are not fruit knives.  They are commonly referred to as “gentlemen’s knives.”)  Fruit knives should not be confused with melon sampler knives.

Full (blade)       

A blade that has not lost any of its original size or shape due to sharpening is said to be “full.”  However, if you don’t know what the original shape was it is dangerous to claim that a blade is full.  Carefully sharpened blades can lose 10% or more of their profile and appear “original” to the untrained eye.

Furrier’s Knife

A specially shaped knife, which is usually just a single piece of steel with a long straight edge and an acute point, used in the garmet industry to patch fur pieces together.

G-10®

A high-pressure fiberglass laminate, created by stacking multiple layers of glass cloth, soaking in epoxy resin, and compressing the resulting material under heat until the epoxy cures.

Handle Materials

Gadget Knife

A term loosely applied to any handle with a folding blade and some other tool(s), or gadget, not covered by a specific tool-knife name. Examples include a tape measure or folding rule, fingernail clipper, cigarette lighter, removable pen or pencil, etc.

Gaucho Knife

A Punal. A fixed blade knife with all metal mounts and sheath. The traditional knife of the cowboys of southern South America.

Glaze Finish

A satin-like finish on steel accomplished by using extremely fine grit. The last grinding step before giving it a “crocus,” or mirror, finish.

Guard  (or Cross-Guard, Crossguard) 

The wide part of a knife’s handle, at the place where the blade joins it, which prevents one’s hand from slipping onto the blade if the knife meets resistance while being pushed forward.  Some folding knives have large T-shaped bolsters as guards; others have a “folding guard” pivoted on the blade such that it folds flat against the handle when the blade is closed.

Case 61050L folding hunter with lockback feature and folding guard.

Knife Parts

Guilloché

A decorative technique in which a very precise, intricate and repetitive pattern is engraved onto a material. For knife handles the decorated metal is usually covered with tinted, transparent enamel.

Gunboat

A large (over 4″) cattle pattern knife made on a canoe handle pattern.

Folding Knife Patterns

Gunstock Pen

A pen knife which has a pronounced narrowing of its width near one or both ends.

Gunstock Premium Jack

A square-ended premium (serpentine) jack with a small widening of the handle’s head end.

Half-Whatever

Half-whittler, half-trapper, half congress, etc. Years ago a knife manufacturer (Case) took a pattern they produced as a whittler and sold it with only two blades (pattern # 6208 1/2 – i.e. an ordinary penknife). To make it sound desireable they called it a “half-whittler.” (Whittlers are defined as having three blades. Likewise, a trapper with only one blade is an ordinary jack knife. Congress pattern knives can have any number of blades starting with one. Ergo, these half-designations are bogus, but online sellers love them.)

Hand Made        

A knife in which the parts are all literally produced and fitted together individually, i.e.”by hand.”  Many modern knives advertised as “hand made” are only hand assembled from mass produced parts.  See: Benchmade.

Handle Die

The shape or sillhouette of a knife’s handle. Probably named after the cutting tool (the “die”) used to punch out the liners of the knife. The handle die’s name can be the name of the knife’s pattern but not necessarily.

Handle Scales or Covers

The material which covers the outside surface of a knife, where it is gripped.

Knife Parts

Handle

The outer covering of the knife where one grips it.  Handles are typically made of stag (deer antler), horn (cattle), bone (jigged or smooth), wood, mother-of-pearl (genuine marine oyster-shell), various metals, tortoise (sea turtle) and many different synthetic materials.

Knife Parts

Hanger

A large sheath knife or short sword, typically German, used by hunters to dispatch wounded game.

Hernia Blade

A type of surgical blade found on folding medical instruments. A long curved blade with a rounded tip having only the last third sharpened.

Hicks Knife

A Bowie-style, fixed blade knife produced by Andrew Hicks of Cleveland, Ohio, with a brass-bound handle and usually  a 10″ blade. It was once thought to have been produced c.1840,  perhaps the first official U.S. military knife (supposedly issued by the US government to US Army riflemen). It has since been shown to date from 1861, produced for sale to private soldiers. (See the November 2015 edition of KNIFE Magazine for proof.)

Higonokami Knife

A penny knife from Japan consisting of a one-piece, folded, sheet metal handle and a blade formed from a thin piece of steel sandwiched between two pieces of iron (See: San Mai).

Hilt

The handle and guard of a fixed-blade knife. More commonly used with swords, its use with knives is discouraged.

Knife Parts

Hinge Pin / Pivot Pin

The pin on which the blade(s) of a folding knife rotates. Generically, “pin” can also refer to one of the rivets which hold the handle scales or shield onto the knife’s liners.

Knife Parts

Hobo Knife

Originally, a camping set with a handle and inter-changeable knife blade and hatchet, by Case and Ka-Bar. Today the term is commonly applied to slot knives and folding knives with a fork and/or spoon.  See: Slot Knife.

Ka-Bar Hobo with slot knife construction, from the 1938 BSA catalog.

Folding Knife Patterns

Hollow Ground

A blade that has a concave surface from the spine toward the cutting edge, or in some cases, the beginning of the grind to the edge.

Horn

The material from the horns of the family bovidae – cattle, buffalo, bison, etc., used as handle material for knives. Horn from sheep and exotic African animals is used primarily by custom knife makers.See: Stag

Horseman’s Knife

A sportsman’s knife that includes a stout folding hook which is used to clean out the underside of a horse’s hooves. Sometimes it will have a “hidden” fleam blade next to one liner.

Folding Knife Patterns

Hospital Corps Knife

Any of several U.S. military bolos.

Sowbelly Jack

A jack knife made on a sowbelly handle die.

Folding Knife Patterns

Hyper-extend

When a blade is opened it usually rotates about 180 degrees before it is stopped by the spring. If it opens noticeably further is it said to be hyper-extended.

Ink Eraser

A short, double-edged, (usually) non-folding blade on the end of a long tang in a wood or ivory handle, used to “erase” ink by scraping it from parchment, vellum, and paper. Often sold as “Civil War scalpels.” The style that is like a short dagger is, without its handle, sometimes sold to the unsuspecting as a “trade arrowhead”. Caveat emptor.

The most common style of ink eraser blade.

Fixed Blade Types

Integral Bolster-Liner

If a bolsters and liner of a knife are a single piece this construction detail is called an “integral bolster-liner.”

Interframe

A modern style of knife with solid metal handles having a recess for a decorative inlay. Patented in 1973 by Ron Lake, but often used in the 19th century for inexpensive knives.

Ivory

A creamy-white dentine material that composes most of the tusk of the elephant, walrus, hippopotamus, etc. Elephant ivory is the most often encountered. Also fossilized tusk from mastodon, mammoth, and walrus. It is a traditional material on custom knives and fine cutlery. Ivory is being increasingly restricted due to environmental and animal poaching concerns.

Jenny Lind Pattern (also Buttercup, Tuxedo)

A slender and dainty balloon pen knife.

Folding Knife Patterns

Jigging       

The grooves or patterns cut into (usually bone) handle material to simulate the appearance of stag.  Old knife catalogues refer to jigged bone as “bone stag.”

Jumbo Jack

A regular or equal end jack that is extra long (3 5/8″ or longer) and fat is a jumbo jack.

Folding Knife Patterns

Junior Premium Stock Knife

A premium stock knife under 3 1/2″ long.

Folding Knife Patterns

Kick

If the bottom edge of a blade’s tang has a pronounced widening or a protrusion next to the choil, this is called the “kick.” The kick is what strikes the backspring, inside the handle, when the blade is closed, preventing the blade’s edge from striking the spring. See the illustration of the parts of a blade.

Knife Parts

Knife

Often called the first tool made by humans, it must be remembered that knapping a blade from a piece of stone requires hitting the stone with something, so the hammer was the first tool used by humans – to make the first knife.

Knife-Fork-Spoon / Combination Knife

As the name implies, these tools have a knife, fork, and spoon which can be separated into individual pieces to be used for eating. A stud, or formed button, on one part fits into a keyhole-shaped slot in its companion and slides to lock the two pieces together, hence the name “slot knife.” Sometimes called a “Picnic Knife.” See also: Slot Knife

Knuckle Bow

a.k.a. D-guard. A curved metal finger-guard attached to the handle of a fighting knife. Not to be confused with a “sub-hilt.”

Knuckle Duster

A combination knife and brass knuckles.

Ladies Knife       

Occasionally you may find a knife (usually a diminutive pen knife) with “Ladies Knife” marked on its side.  This was a marketing ploy.  Just because a knife is small (even the tiny “charm” sized miniature knives), or very fancy, or made of precious materials, does not mean it was specifically made for women to carry.  In the 19th and early 20th centuries the well dressed gentlemen often carried a small, elaborately decorated knife in a vest pocket or on his watch chain.  Very fancy knives with silver (or silver plated) blades are fruit knives, often given as a love token, but used by men and women.          

Laguiole

A style of clasp knife originally made by Calmels in the Laguiole reqion of France. A Laguiole typically has the business end of the spring carved in the shape of a bee. It will sometimes have a corkscrew.

Folding Knife Patterns

Lambfoot Blade

Similar to a sheepfoot blade which has a spine parallel to its edge, the lambfoot has a slight taper and the rounding at the tip makes a slightly more acute point. See: Sheepfoot, Wharncliffe blades.

Blade Shapes

Lancet

A type of surgical blade found on folding medical instruments. The head on some types of lancets (like the Gum Lancet pictured here) looks like a tiny axe. Thumb lancets may look more like a wide dagger, or other wide form.

Thumb lancet

Blade Shapes

Lazy       

A blade that does not “walk and talk.”

Leg Knife

A knife, usually a small, single-bladed jack knife shaped like a leg having a foot or shoe. See: Ballet Knife.

Folding Knife Patterns

Letter Opener Knife

A jack knife with a long non-folding letter-opening “blade” at its head end. Letter-opener knives were often advertising premiums. A “Desk Knife” may or may not incorporate a folding knife blade.

Fixed Blade Types|Folding Knife Patterns

Liner (Lining)

One of the metal plates onto which a knife’s bolsters and handles are attached or which separate the springs in a multi-springed knife. (Also, “Lining”).

Knife Parts

Liner Lock

A blade locking mechanism in which a section of one liner is tensioned in such a way that when a blade is fully opened the section moves inward, behind the tang, preventing the blade from closing.

Lobster

A pen knife with blades pivoting from both sides, and perhaps both ends. Lobsters can be any shape and there are several pattern names unique to lobsters. (Pictured: Oval Lobster)

Equal End Lobster

Folding Knife Patterns

Lock       

A safety device; any of a variety of mechanisms that prevent a blade, once opened, from closing without the user taking an additional action to un-lock it.

Lock Back (Lockback, Back Lock)

A knife with a blade lock which is operated by depressing a lever somewhere on the back of the handle.

Folding Knife Patterns

Long Square Kick

On very old knives: a kick which is not simply a widening of the tang but a pronounced, nearly square, extension of it. When assembling the knife, the kick would be slowly ground down until, when closed, the blade rested in the desired position inside the handle. (Illustration of jack knives with long square kicks from Smith’s Key, 1816)

Knife Parts

Loom Fixer

A commercial name given by Case to their #6217, a swayback jack pattern with sheepfoot and pen blades that was apparently popular in the weaving industry. Ka-Bar used this term as well and even registered it as a trademark.

From the Goins’ Encyclopedia files — an example of the sort of thing you can access with a Premium Subscription to this website!

Folding Knife Patterns

Machete

A fixed blade knife with a long, thin, somewhat flexible blade (typically 12″ to 24″) used primarily for chopping brush or harvesting tropical plants such as sugar cane. A few folding machetes have also been produced over the years.

Fixed Blade Types

Magician’s Knife

Also called a “sleight of hand knife.” Any knife, usually having contrasting handles or another special feature, used by magicians to create an illusion.

Maize Knife

A knife used in the farming of sorghum, the maize knife is a jack with a short blade having a rounded end, much like a spey blade. A worn or broken pruner can easily be mistaken for a maize knife. Sometimes called a “corn topper.” See: Corn Knife

Folding Knife Patterns

Mark Side (Obverse, Front Side)

When you hold a knife horizontally, with a blade on the right and pointing upward, you are looking at the mark side of that blade. The opposite side is the pile side.

Master Blade

Generally, the largest blade in a multiple-blade knife, but not a tool such as a saw blade.

Knife Parts

Mastercraft (Robeson)

Robeson sold a line of knives with a shield stamped “Mastercraft.” These knives had a piece of bronze attached to the tang of the blade(s) so that it rode on the spring rather than having steel-on-steel contact. Most Mastercraft knives encountered today are missing that piece of bronze. When the bronze cap is missing, the tang shows three lobes and the blade stops at four positions as it opens.

Match Safe Knife

A small knife-shaped device with one or more folding blades and one handle formed as a container with a hinged lid, designed to hold snuff.

Mechanical Pen Knife

A knife with any device which actuates or assists in opening its blade(s) without necessitating touching the blade itself. (Illustration of knives with slide-out blades from Smith’s Key, 1816.)

Folding Knife Patterns

Melon Tester

Most often a regular jack, which is long (4 1/2″ to 6″) and thin (about 1/2″ wide) with a single spear point blade. They are used to cut a plug out of melons to display the ripeness of the fruit. Also used in the meat packing industry, most melon testers have a vendor’s name or advertising slogan inscribed on the handle. Some melon testers are double-ended, having a second pen blade or small fork. They can have a pocket clip. Do not confuse these inexpensive knives with “Fruit Knives.”

A double-ended Melon Tester.

Folding Knife Patterns

Micarta®

Westinghouse’s trademarked name for a phenolic plastic laminated with other materials such as linen, paper, or canvas. Invented in 1937 for the electronics industry, it is tough and chemically resistant and is used for factory as well as custom knives.

Milled (Liners)       

A decorative effect similar to the edge of a dime, on the edges of the liners of a knife.  Loosely, a similar zig-zag effect made by mechanically crimping the liner’s edge.  See Filework.

Miniature       

(A philosophical definition) A tiny, yet fully functional knife, having all the same parts and materials, and functioning in the same way as a full-size knife; but being too small to be used for practical purposes. Most small knives are just small knives; miniatures are novelties primarily intended as charms or to display a knifemaker’s skill.  Generally, a folding knife should be about one and one-half inches long or less to qualify.  If it is so small that it is difficult to use, it is probably a miniature. Fully functional folding knives can be found which are less than 1/2″ long when closed!  A small knife-shaped item that does not have a working spring or a steel blade is just a “toy.”

Mint       

“Mint” does not mean “shiny.” Read that again! The description “mint” only applies to a knife when it remains exactly as it came from the factory.  It can not have any use, or wear, period, although, poor finishing and manufacturing defects which were present when the knife was produced do not disqualify it from being mint. Once a knife is no longer mint it can never be mint again.  A knife cannot be “cleaned to mint.” See; Cleaned.

Mokume  

A decorative material made by fusing layers of different metals to produce pleasing layers of color. Do not confuse with damascus.

Mother of Pearl (MOP)       

Usually (incorrectly) referred to simply as “pearl”, it is the nacreous material an oyster deposits on the inside of it’s shell, which can be cut and polished to a glass-like luster.  It often displays iridescent colors and fascinating patterns that have tremendous “eye appeal.”  Through the ages it has been the premier handle material on high quality knives.  It is brittle, easily damaged, and breathing the dust generated by cutting it causes lung disease.  As a result there have been many attempts to create synthetic substitutes for MOP.  Many of the knives advertised as having MOP handles are in fact handled with some form of plastic. Abalone and green sea snail are types of mother-of-pearl. See: Pearl

Multi-Blade Knife

Technically, any knife with over one blade, the multi-blade term is a catch-all for knives, such as a “Swiss Army Knife” that don’t have a specific pattern name. Often such knives have many blades and special tools, such as a corkscrew, saw, gimlet, leather punch, hoof pick, scissors, etc. folding out of the handle. Six- to twenty-blade versions are not uncommon (see: Sportsman’s Knife). These knives’ handles can be almost any shape and do not easily fall into any one category. Some, such as horseman’s knives, champagne patterns, etc have a special feature which gives them their name. Large exhibition knives can have fifty to two hundred various blades and tools but they are not intended to be used.

Folding Knife Patterns

Muskrat Pattern

A serpentine, double-ended jack knife with two very narrow blades having extra-long clips. It was designed for trappers.

Folding Knife Patterns

Nail Nick (Nail Mark, Nail Pull)

See Pull.

Knife Parts

Navaja

The Spanish name for a clasp knife.

New England Whaler Pattern

A smaller version of the rope knife for lighter work. Whalers do not have a bail.

Nickel Silver (German Silver)

An alloy of copper, zinc, and nickel, contains no silver. The usual nickel content is 18%, but in some cases lower percentages were used.

Handle Materials

Norfolk Whittler Pattern

A large eureka pattern whittler with a pronounced swell and a unique blade shape. The heavy main blade is saber-ground with an exaggerated clip and swedge.

Folding Knife Patterns

Office Knife

A equal-end, double-ended jack knife with a spear or clip point master blade and a spey as the second blade. They usually have celluloid handles and the words “Office Knife” pressed onto one side with fancy scroll-work decoration.

Folding Knife Patterns

One-Armed Man’s Knife

Popular after the Civil War and beyond; a dinner knife with a curved blade sharpened on the outside edge and ending in fork tines, for one-hand eating. Usually a fixed-blade but switchblade versions were produced. Newer knives having blades with a semi-circular cut-out at the tip (such as many straight razors do) are said to be designed to be opened one-handed by hooking the hollow on a pants pocket. That might work, but they are not one-armed man’s knives.

Fixed Blade Types|Folding Knife Patterns

Orange Blossom Pattern

A gunstock pattern lobster knife with a whittler configuration on its upper side and a long manicure file folded flush into the bottom side.

Folding Knife Patterns

Oval (Pen Knife)

An equal-end pattern with a more pronounced convex arc to the handle’s edges than a ciger pattern. Generally small (2 1/2″) pen knives.

Palette Knife

A handle with a long and very flexible, but not sharpened, folding spatula blade which is used by artists to apply paint to canvas (impasto technique) and by pharmacists to count or group pills on a platform. This type of spatula blade is sometimes found as the second blade in a physician’s pattern knife.

Folding Knife Patterns

Paper Knife

Antique books were made by printing multiple pages on both sides of one large sheet of paper, folding it repeatedly down to single-page size, and trimming the edges. When you received a book it was not uncommon to find some un-trimmed pages. Paper knives had dull blades with which to split the fold in order to open the pages. Folding knives made with ivory handles and blades are sometimes marked “Paper Knife” but can also be marked “Fruit Knife.”

Paring Knife

A small kitchen knife for general peeling and slicing.

Patch Knife

Used with muzzleloading rifles: any knife used to trim excess patch cloth from around the bullet after is is pushed slightly into the barrel and before it is pushed all the way down to the powder. Many old riflemen simply used their regular sheath knife.

Fixed Blade Types

Peanut Pattern

A small (under 3″) reverse dogleg jack knife.

Folding Knife Patterns

Pearl (Laminated)       

Thin slices of exotic pearl species such as abalone and green sea snail, too small for use in knife handles, can be laminated into slabs much larger than can be found in nature. This material is very popular in collector knives.

Pearl       

Technically, only the loose pieces of nacreous material produced by certain shellfish, to surround irritants inside their shells, are referred to as “pearls.”  However, the term is often substituted for “mother-of-pearl” when referring to anything made from mother-of-pearl; as in “pearl-handled knife.”  Sometimes referred to as “marine pearl.”  See: Mother of Pearl

Pecan Budder Pattern

A form of grafting known as “patch budding” is used with pecan trees. It requires placing a precisely cut “patch”, containing a bud, into an identically cut hole in the bark of the host tree. To make the cuts exactly the same size requires a knife with two parallel blades approximately one inch apart. The pecan budder looks like two single-bladed jack knives assembled with a thick spacer between them.

Folding Knife Patterns

Pellett Lifts

Small buttons attached the spine of some small pen knives to make it easier to pull the blade open. Invented by – wait for it – W. W. Pellett in 1893.

Pen Blade

A small spear point blade, so-called if it is a secondary blade.

Blade Shapes

Pen Knife

A smallish knife that has blades that pivot from both ends.  See: Jack Knife and Multi-blade.

Folding Knife Patterns

Pen Machine

Back when writing pens were actually made from bird’s feathers a device called a pen machine, basically a set of cutting dies in a wooden or ivory handle, was used to cut the end of the feather to shape. Usually a small folding blade was included at the opposite end of the handle.

Penny Knife

A very basic springless folding knife with the blade pivoted in a slot cut into the one-piece handle (usually wood). Upon opening, the blade’s back-square stops against a simple wrap-around bolster or a pin fixed crosswise through the handle.

Phurbu

A Tibetan ritual knife, usually with a tri-radial, unsharpened blade and fancy, cast brass handle. Used to symbolically “kill” the demons thought to be inhabiting a person who is ill.

Picture Handles

Traditionally, clear, celluloid plastic handle scales with photographs and/or printed matter sealed under, and visible through, them.

Handle Materials

Pig Sticker

(Slang) Specifically, a slang term for a sharp-pointed bayonet, the term is romantically applied to any virtually any knife designed for thrusting.

Pile Side

The rear side of a blade. See: Mark Side

Pin

Any of the thin metal rods, or rivets, that form the pivot for the blade, hold handles onto the liners, or hold the entire knife together.  The often encountered term “pin knife” is a misspelling of “pen” knife.

Knife Parts

Pinched Bolster

If a bolster look as though a someone squeezed its tip making a small indentation it is said to be “pinched.” See” Grooved Bolster, Threaded Bolster.

Grooved Bolster

If a bolster has a single, half-round channel running across it, it is said to be grooved. See: Threaded Bolster, Pinched Bolster.

Threaded Bolster

If a bolster a fine groove running across it, it is said to be “threaded”. See: Grooved Bolster, Pinched Bolster.

Knife Parts

Pistol Knife

See: Knife Pistol

Folding Knife Patterns

Plier Knife Pattern (Pliers Knife)

Any knife which contains a pair of pliers, either incorporated as part of the knife’s frame or which fold out, like a blade. Before the Leatherman tool became popular these knives were somewhat unusual; today they are ubiquitous.

Pocket Blade

The main, or master blade of a knife. See: Master blade.

Knife Parts

Pommel / Pommel Cap

The cap or finishing piece at the end of a fixed-blade knife’s handle.

Knife Parts

Powderhorn Pattern

A “tickler” pattern.

Folding Knife Patterns

Pradel

A historical knife-making family in Europe; generically applied to the European version (usually having six blades) of the “utility” pattern.

Premium Jack Pattern

A serpentine, equal-end or slightly tapered, jack knife. Older ones were round-ended: newer ones are usually square-ended. The blades pivot at the fatter end.

Folding Knife Patterns

Premium Pen

A small serpentine pen knife such as Case’s xx33 pattern is sometimes referred to as a “premium” pen.

Folding Knife Patterns

Premium Stock Knife Pattern

The premium stock knife is basically a cattle knife except that it is built on a serpentine handle die. Premium stock knives can have up to six blades. Their main blade is a clip. Like cattle knives they will have a spey or sheepfoot blade. If they are under 3 1/2″ they are called “junior” premium stock knives.

Folding Knife Patterns

Pruning Knife Pattern (Pruner)

A large curved jack with a hawkbill blade. Older ones often came with a saw blade. Some have rounded heads, some have flat heads, sometimes with a seal-cap. Until recently pruning knives were not considered valuable; today the best names are bringing prices similar to other jack knives. Often called simply a “Pruner.”

Pruner with seal cap — from Smith’s Key, 1816.

Folding Knife Patterns

Pull

The indentation in a blade that allows the user to open the blade with a fingernail.  The variations are: Common pull, regular pull, short pull, or “nail nick” – a short crescent-shaped indentation (pictured above); Long, or “French” pull – a long straight channel, up to half the length of the blade, and ending at the tang; Match-striker, matchstriker, or “dentate” pull – a long pull with the appearance of saw-teeth within the channel.

Double Pull

Knife Parts

Punal

See Gaucho Knife

Punch Blade

A gouge-shaped cutting blade or triangular awl/reamer (but not a gimlet) for making holes in leather and other materials.

Blade Shapes

Push Dagger

A dagger blade in a “T”-shaped handle; when held the tang usually protrudes between the second and third fingers. Historically called a “gimlet knife” due to its similarity to traditional gimlets.

Puukko

The traditional general-purpose outdoor knife of Finland.

Quadrangular Knife (Barrel Knife)

A radially symetrical knife with blades on four sides. Typically made as quill knives, most quadrangular knives also have blades at both ends so they can be found with 4, 8, 16, 24, 32, and more, blades. I once saw a quadrangular knife with 48 blades.

Folding Knife Patterns

Quill Knife Pattern

Quill knives were used until the end of the 19th Century to cut and shape the end of a large feather (the quill is the hollow shaft at the base of the feather) to form a writing pen. Most quill knives are single-bladed but they can have any number of blades. However, not all small knives are quill knives. A quill blade is usually much shorter than its handle and on the single-bladed ones the spring usually wraps around the head end and partially fills the blade cavity. Ironically, while most quill knives are jack knives, most “pen” knives are not quill knives.

Folding Knife Patterns

Quillon

One branch of a guard. “Quillion” is a common misspelling.

Knife Parts

Rase Knife Pattern

aka Raze Knife. Usually a jack knife with a blade which is rolled over forming a gouge, similar to a hoof knife, at its tip. It is used to cut identifying marks (letters, numerals, etc.) into wood; e.g. beams when house-building or an owner’s names on barrels. There are a few rase knives with a “T”-shaped head having a gouge at either end. Frequently used in ship building, rase knives often have bronze handles. A fixed-blade version with a gouge and a pointed tip, to facilitate making circles, is called a cellarman’s knife and is used to mark wine barrels. Interestingly, to re-use shipping crates a scraper was used to “e-rase” marks previously made with a rase knife.

Folding Knife Patterns

Red Cross Knife Pattern

A large wood-handled folding knife made during WWI which has a blade and a folding spoon but does not come apart into two pieces. They were distributed by the Red Cross to our troops and were not government issued items.

Regular Jack Pattern

A regular jack has straight sides which taper and are more narrow at the bottom, or blade-pivot, end. The bottom bolster is somewhat squared off.

Folding Knife Patterns

Ricasso

Some fixed-blade knives have a flat, unsharpened area between the end of the sharpened edge and the guard and/or handle. This area is the ricasso and often has the manufacturer’s information stamped on it. See: Tang

Knife Parts

Marlin Spike

A robust (up to 3/8″ thick and as long as the knife), pointed spike which folds out of a rope knife and is used by sailors to tie and untie knots aboard ship. See: Rope Knife

Blade Shapes

Riggers Knife Pattern (Rigging Knife, Yachtsman’s Knife, Sailors Knife)

A type of rope knife having a locking “marlin spike.” See also: Yachtsman’s Knife.

Folding Knife Patterns

Ring Opener / Ring Turn Pattern

A knife in which the pivot pin of a blade extends out from one side of the handle and has a ring passing through it which is turned to open the blade.

Folding Knife Patterns

Rooster Nutter Pattern

See: Spey Knife

Folding Knife Patterns

Rope Knife

A large curved jack, or curved regular jack having a heavy sheepfoot blade. It is used by sailors to cut rope by laying the rope on a solid surface and driving the blade through it with a belaying pin. Rope knives usually have a bail for securing them to one’s belt. Some rope knives have a thick folding spike, called a “marlin spike” attached next to the blade or on the knife’s back. It is used for splicing ropes together and loosening tightened knots. If the marlin spike locks the knife is called a “rigger’s knife.” If it does not lock the knife is a “yachtsman’s knife.”

Folding Knife Patterns

Ruler Knife

A knife with measuring increments marked on the handle, blade, or on a folding attachment.

Folding Knife Patterns

Run Up

That part of the back-square of a folding blade’s tang which contacts the backspring when the blade is open. See the illustration of the parts of a blade.

Knife Parts

Saber Ground (Sabre Ground, Saber Grind, Sabre Grind)

A blade that has an area (usually about 1/3 to 1/2 the width of the blade) along the spine which has a uniform thickness. The beveling toward the blade’s edge starts below this flat area. Saber ground blades usually have a clip point and pronounced swedges (pictured above) but these features, no matter how radical, are not what defines a saber-ground blade.

NOT Saber ground – Flat Ground Clip Point Blade

Blade Shapes

Saddlehorn Pattern

A curved regular jack with a pronounced upsweep at its head end and a bulbous head area is called a “saddlehorn.” It is an old and fairly scarce pattern, only found in larger sizes (around 4-1/2″).

Folding Knife Patterns

Saddler’s Knife

A fixed blade knife having a semi-circular blade, 4″ to 6″ wide, attached to a short, bulbous handle. Used by saddlers, harness makers, shoemakers, etc. to cut leather.

Salesman’s Sample Knife

A salesman’s demonstration knife with the manufacturer’s identifying number’s, etc. marked on a blade with acidic cutler’s ink. Sometimes it will have handle scales of different materials.

Sambar Stag

Antler material from the Sambar deer of India and South East Asia. Sambar deer are protected, but shed their large antlers annually, and the shed antlers are collected by local people and sold for use by craftsmen. See: Stag

San Mai

A laminated blade with hard steel sandwiched between two layers of softer steel/iron.

Satanic Dagger

A European ritual dagger having an elaborately crafted handle in the form of a demon.

Sausage Knife (Sausage Sampler)

See: Melon Tester.

Folding Knife Patterns

Scabbard

In use, folding knives are carried in the pocket, hung on a pocket or belt by a clip, or carried in a belt pouch, sometimes called a holster (not, as so many eBay users insist, in a “case”). Fixed blade knives and swords are carried in a scabbard or sheath. Scabbard is the term preferred in military circles.

Knife Parts

Scalpel (Blade)

A type of surgical blade found on both fixed and folding medical instruments. It is leaf-shaped with an acute point. Note: ink erasers are frequently mis-identitifed as scalpels.

Blade Shapes

Scalping Knife

A North American Indian trade knife with a 7″ (more or less) flat ground blade and a wooden handle, diamond-shaped in cross section. (Illustration from Smith’s Key, 1816)

Fixed Blade Types

Scarificator

A type of mechanical fleam used on humans. It looks like a brass cube, approximately 1 1/2″ across, with a “trigger” protruding from the top and eight to twelve small blades, powered by an internal spring, on the bottom. The spring is cocked by a lever and when released by the trigger the blades rotate making multiple cuts simultaneously.

Scout Knife

Any knife, usually a utility pattern, made specifically for the official scouting organizations such as the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, etc. A utility pattern that is NOT one authorized by the scouts is not a scout knife – it is simply a utility pattern knife. (Do not confuse utility “pattern” with “utility knife” which is hollow-handled with a replaceable, sliding blade that is used for slicing up boxes, carpet, and other rough work.)

Folding Knife Patterns

Scrimshaw

Engraving or carving on natural materials such as ivory, bone, horn, etc. The engraving is filled with pigment to bring out the detail. Mass-production modern knives advertised as “scrimshaw” are plastic with molded or pressed detail.

Featured photo: Color scrimshaw by Sandra Brady on a Randall Made knife (SharpByCoop photo)

Seal Cap

Physician’s pattern knives, and many older pruners, have a metal cap opposite the blade end, which covers the entire end of the knife preventing dust and dirt from becoming packed between the spring, liners, and scales of the handle.

Knife Parts

Second-cut Stag

After the outside, textured layer (sometimes called the “bark”) is sliced from a thick antler a “second cut” can be taken and jigged like bone, for making handle scales. See: Stag.

Secret Knife

Any knife which has a concealed or “secret” mechanism for opening its blade(s).

Seed Pick

Some fruit knives have a short tool with a blunt end as a second blade. It is for digging seeds or pits out of the fruit. It should not be confused with the similar manicure tool, on some lobster patterns and gentlemen’s knives, which has a file on its inner surface.

Senator Pattern

An Equal-End Pen knife.

Folding Knife Patterns

Serpentine (Handles, Pattern)

A handle which has a slight “S” curve. The extreme variations are the sowbelly and the saddlehorn. (“Serpentine”= snakelike)

Folding Knife Patterns

Seton Needle

A needle used to introduce a bristle (seta), or silk thread, under the skin to cause irritation; thought to “distract” the body from some other area of distress. The large ones found on folding knives are for use on cattle.

Sgian Dubh

(Pronounced “Ski’-ain DOO”) – A small single edged knife typically worn in the stocking with traditional Scottish dress.

Shear Steel

Shear steel is made by breaking up pieces of cast steel and forging them into a solid mass.

Sheath Knife

Any fixed blade knife which is intended to be carried in or with a blade covering device, sometimes highly decorative, and designed to protect the owner from being cut.

Fixed Blade Types

Sheepfoot Blade (Sheepsfoot Blade)

A blade with a straight cutting edge, and a spine that is parallel to the edge and curves almost ninety degrees downward at the blade’s end. See also: Lamb Foot, Wharncliffe.

Blade Shapes

Sheffield Pattern Lobster (Sheffield Lobster)

A sleeveboard lobster which has the back edges of it handles cut away down to the backspring and a long, full-width manicure tool lying in the recess.

Folding Knife Patterns

Shield

A small metal plate attached to a knife handle for decoration or as a place for an inscription.  Shields come in many different named shapes. See chart of shield shapes. On a fixed blade knife, the shield is called an “Escutcheon.”

Types of “Figural” shields. Figural shields are popular with collectors and often enhance a knife’s collectibility. Let to Right: Bull Head Shield (Western Cutlery, Utica Cutlery, others), Doghead Shield (Union Cutlery / Ka-Bar), Keystone Shield (Keen Kutter / Simmons Hardware), Bullet Shield (Remington), Acorn Shield (Remington), Star Shield (Schrade Cutlery), Diamond Shield (Diamond Edge / Shapleigh Hardware)

Knife Parts

Shoulder

The place where the blade’s grinding stops and the tang begins is called the shoulder. See the illustration of the parts of a blade.

Knife Parts

Skeleton Knife

An incomplete knife which includes the assembled liners, blades, and spring(s), and is sold to jewelers who design and attach their own handle scales.

Sleeveboard Pattern

A handle die with rounded ends and straight sides which taper slightly. It looks like the little ironing boards that used to be used to iron shirt sleeves.

Folding Knife Patterns

Slot Knife

A folding knife, fork, and/or spoon combination which can be taken apart into two or three pieces for use.  Typically there are studs or extensions of the liner on one part that fit into “slots” in the liner of the other part(s), holding the pieces together for carrying.  See: Hobo.

Fruit knife with slot knife mechanism, from Smith’s Key, 1816.

Folding Knife Patterns

Sloyd Knife

A fixed blade, manual training knife of Sweden. Sloyd means “dexterity” in Swedish.

Fixed Blade Types

Smatchet

A combat knife with a large, leaf-shaped, double-edged blade.

Smoker’s Knife

A multi-bladed knife which includes tools useful to the smoker, such as a pipe tamper, pipe cleaning tool, cigar fork, cigar cutter, or a long thin punch which is pushed down the center of a cigar to make as airway. Read about: Cigar Cutter.

Folding Knife Patterns

Snap        

See: Walk & Talk

Sowbelly

A larger serpentine knife with a very pronounced curvature is called a Sowbelly. Misuse of this term has become popular in recent years due to the Sowbelly’s popularity, a Sowbelly is ONLY in the pictured handle shape, and no other.

Three-blade Sowbelly made by Sheffield’s Stan Shaw in 1973.

Folding Knife Patterns

Spear Point Blade

A folding knife blade where the edge and spine are nearly parallel and each curves equally toward the tip.

Spear Point Blade with Saber Grind

Blade Shapes

Spey Blade

A blade with a parallel spine and edge terminating with the edge sweeping up almost to the spine and having a short, clipped-off end. Used in cattle castration applications as well as plant budding and as an ink eraser, but the same term is used for each. (“Spey” = to remove the ovaries of a female animal, but the blade is more intended for castrating males.) “Spay” is common mis-spelling.

Used in a budding and grafting knife, a spey blade serves botanical purposes.

Blade Shapes

Spey Knife (Speying Knife)

A veterinary knife, with one spey blade and one long (2″ or so), thin tang that terminates in a short turned-down portion which is sharpened on the inside; used to convert roosters to capons. For sterilization purposes, the handles are usually made of metal. Small ones with upturned handles (as pictured) are commonly called “Rooster Nutters”.

Folding Knife Patterns

Split Spring

A forked or branching spring typically found in lobster pattern pen knives. (Illustration from the Winchester Model Drawings notebook, available in our Digital Library)

Knife Parts

Split-Spring Whittler (Split-Backspring Whittler)

See “Whittler” below; this term is a permissible exception to the definition because it is the antecedent technology to modern whittlers. Some whittlers have their springs lying side by side, touching each other. Other whittlers have a tapered divider (See: Whittler, Tapered Divider; also Whittler, Catch Bit) between them so that at the two-blade end the individual springs are held apart. However, a true split-spring whittler has ONE solid spring that is literally split into two parts for about half of its length (from the two-blade end.) True split-backspring whittlers date from the 19th century and are rare.

See also: Split-Spring Jack; Whittler, Tapered Divider

Folding Knife Patterns

Sportsman’s Knife

A large multi-blade knife which carries useful tools such as a saw, gimlet, corkscrew, file, toothpick, tweezers, etc. Useful to the outdoorsman. A Sportsman’s Knife with a hoof pick is called a Horseman’s Knife.

Folding Knife Patterns

Spotted Horn

Translucent cattle horn can be spattered with sulphuric or nitric acid, which turns the horn dark brown, to simulate tortoise shell. Unlike real tortoise shell, the color is only on the surface, not completely through the material. This material is extremely common on older straight razors, which were rarely made of genuine tortoise shell.

Handle Materials

Springer

A specific type of automatic knife mechanism which releases the blade by means of a lever mounted on one side. Often these knives are German made.

Spud

The thin, blunt section of the handle of a grafting knife which is used to hold the host tree’s bark open while inserting the cutting. Generally fixed and the head end of the handle (as pictured), occasionally it is a folding “blade”. Alternately, a dull, beveled “horn” near the tip of the knife’s blade, for the same purpose.

A Budding Blade with spud “horn” hear the blade’s tip.

Knife Parts

Square and Clean Joint

Found on early folders: when the tang of the blade is flush with the end of the bolsters while the knife is closed, and half open, it is said to be a square and clean (or clean and square) joint. This geometry positions the hinge pin close to the edge of the bolsters and makes for a weak joint.

Knife Parts

Square Bolsters

When a bolster is flat on top it is called a square bolster, regardless of whether it has corners or bevels. See the illustration of the styles of bolsters.

Stabilized (Wood, Etc.)

Porous materials, such as wood, infused with plastic or epoxy to make them hard and durable for use in knife handles.

Stag

The antlers of the mammals forming the family Cervidae – deer, elk, moose, etc. commonly used as handle material for knives.

Stainless Steel

Any alloy of iron infused with chromium and/or other elements which impart resistance to discoloration and corrosion.

Blade Materials|Handle Materials

Stamp        

A mark made in metal by striking it with a pre-cut tool (the “die”).  Also, the act of making such a mark. Manufacturer’s information is usually stamped on the tang of a blade. Solid metal handles are sometimes struck with a die (die-stamped or coined) to impart text or pictures.  See Etch and Engraving.

Station Knife

An Australian rancher’s knife.

Steak Knife

A long butcher knife used for slicing steaks, called a “steak slicer” or, when curved and pointed, a “scimitar (or cimeter) steak knife.” Starting in the 1930s small, sharp, dinner knives, often serrated, were sold as “steak” knives for use with roasted or broiled meats.

Steel

An alloy of iron saturated with carbon to allow it to be hardened. Addition of other elements changes the toughness and stain resistance of the metal. Steels are designated by a series of letters and numberrs denoting their specific content, such as 440C, ATS-34, A-2, 5160, CPMS30V, etc.

Sterile Knife (or Blade)

A knife with no identifying or maker’s markings.

Stiletto

A slender dagger. Also, loosely, a pointy folding knife in the Italian style.

Fixed Blade Types|Folding Knife Patterns

Stock Knife (Stockman, Stockman’s Knife)

See: Premium Stock Knife

Stone

Both natural and reconstituted stone makes beautiful and unique knife handles. A wide variety is available to factory and custom makers and is used both for single-piece handles and in “mosaic” handles composed of multiple pieces inlaid in patterns.

Strikefire

Some 18th and 19th century folding knives have thick plates covering their backspring(s) for striking a flint to start a fire. Alternately, some large English folding knives with extra-heavy blades were stamped, near the spine of the blade, “Strike Fire Here.”

Sub Hilt

A second single-ended guard on the handle of a fighting knife, mounted just below the main guard, and which fits between the first and second fingers of the user’s hand.

Sunfish Lobster Pattern

An equal-end lobster pinched at its center and with candle ends.

Folding Knife Patterns

Sunfish Pattern

A large (3 3/4″ long or more and over one inch wide) double-ended jack knife with a massive spearpoint main blade and a secondary blade as large as many main blades in smaller knives. While most often found on an equal end handle die, it is sometimes found as a sleeveboard or swell-center. Also called the “Elephant’s Toe Nail,” “Old English Rope Knife,” and “Vest Pocket Axe”.

Folding Knife Patterns

Sunk Joint, Fully & Partially

As you trace along the spine of a folding blade, away from the tip, there is a spot where it drops down at a 90 degree angle. This is the “run up.” It is the part of the blade which strikes the spring upon opening. Usually the run up shows above the edge of the knife as a sharp corner, which can tear one’s pocket, when the blade(s) is closed. If, when the blade is closed, there is no part of the run up showing above the handle the knife is said to have fully sunk joints. This is usually considered a sign of a better quality knife. If a very small amount of the run-up shows it is called a “partially” sunk joint.

Swedge

The area along the spine of a blade, starting at the tip and generally extending about one-third of the way toward the tang, which is beveled somewhat creating a “false” (unsharpened) edge. On multiple-bladed knives it allows access to the nail nicks of parallel blades. Not to be confused with a “clip” point. On a fixed blade knife, a swedge is usually called a “False Edge” whether or not it is sharpened/

Knife Parts

Swell-Center

When a handle’s edge has a distinct widening at a point near its center (and then, generally, narrows again) it is called a swell-center. This term can modify almost any pattern name but in some cases this feature changes the pattern name. E.g. there is no “swell-center senator” pattern; it is simply called a swell center pen knife.

Congress pattern modified with swell center to create a Swell Center Congress

Folding Knife Patterns

Coke Bottle

A Swell Center Jack that is wider on the cap end than the bottom end; the term is typically associated with folding hunters (0ver 5″ closed). Derived, obviously, from its similarity to an old fashioned bottle of Coca-Cola. See: Swell-Center Jack

Folding Knife Patterns

Swiss Army Knife

The first knives made specifically for the Swiss military were made by Wenger & Co. in Germany in 1890. The first Swiss-made knives for the Swiss military were made by Karl Elsener in 1891. His firm eventually became Victorinox. Over the years several court cases have affirmed that only Victorinox and their major competitor, Wenger, could legally use the phrase “Swiss Army Knife” in their advertising. In 2005 Victorinox purchased Wenger.

Switchblade

Another term for an “automatic knife.”

Folding Knife Patterns

Chisel Grind

A blade made with all the beveling toward its edge done on one side. The opposite side is completely flat.

Tactical Grind

See: Chisel Grind.

Tang Stamp        

The information (brand name, trademark, pattern number, etc.) stamped on the tang of a pocket knife.

Tang [Folding Knife]

The flat un-sharpened area of a folding knife’s blade where it pivots in the handle.  This area is usually stamped with the maker’s information.  Note: On a fixed-blade knife the unsharpened area where the blade meets the guard and/or the handle is called the “ricasso.”  The tang of a fixed-blade knife is the part inside the handle. See: Ricasso, Tang [Folding Knife]

Knife Parts

Tanto

A type of Japanese short sword.

Tenaculum

A “blade” found on folding medical instruments; essentially a thin hook with a needle-like point.

Tenotome

A type of surgical blade found on folding medical instruments. It is a small scalpel at the end of an extended tang.

Texas Toothpick

Another name for the Tickler Pattern.

Folding Knife Patterns

Thumb Lancet

A small (2″ or so), springless, thin, double-edged blade for phlebotomy (bleeding). Its two covers are not connected and rotate independantly. It is held by the thumb and forefinger and plunged to create the puncture, hence the name.

Tickler

A clasp knife pattern, usually 5″ or more in length, with a pronounced taper at the head end. It carries a single clip point blade.

Folding Knife Patterns

Tobacco Knife

A larger congress or whittler pattern that does not have a manicure blade.

Folding Knife Patterns

Tool Kit Knife

A knife which is included in a pouch or folding case containing a handle and a variety of interchangeable tools such as a file, screwdriver, chisel, hammer, bottle opener, etc. The handle, typically an equal-end jack, has a large spear point blade at on end and the opposite end has a provision for attachment of any of the tools. Large kits often have two handles and a separate pair of pliers. Some handles can also hold a tool at their middle.

Set by Challenge Cutlery Co.

Folding Knife Patterns

Toothpick

Commonly, a Tickler pattern knife. Also see “Arkansas Toothpick” and “Texas Toothpick”; also an actual toothpick contained in the handle of a folding knife such as a Sportsman’s Pattern.

Folding Knife Patterns

Tortoise Shell

A beautiful mottled brown and translucent material cut from the shell of sea turtles. Once popular on high-grade cutlery, it had largely been replaced by celluloid by the early 1900s. Tortoise shell slabs were often under-laid with gold foil when used for knife handles. Its use is currently restricted by environmental protection laws.

Trapper, Large (Large Trapper)

See: Jumbo Trapper

Folding Knife Patterns

Trapper, Light (Light Trapper)

A trapper built on a 3 3/4″ Slim Reverse Dogleg Jack handle die, it is slightly more slender than the standard trapper. See: Trapper, Standard.

Folding Knife Patterns

Trapper, Standard (Standard Trapper)

A jack knife with two equal-length blades, one being a clip point and the other being a long spey. About 4″ to 4 1/4″ long and built on a long Reverse Dogleg Jack handle die. A single blade knife on the trapper frame is called a Single Blade Trapper or one blade trapper. See: Trapper, Large; Trapper, Double-Ended; Trapper, Light; Trapper Jack

[caption id=”attachment_77961″ align=”alignnone” width=”800″] Knife at top is a Standard Trapper. At bottom is a Single Blade Trapper; knife at center with secondary pen blade is a Trapper Jack[/caption]

Folding Knife Patterns

Trousse

A set of hunting knives and associated tools, carried together in a single sheath. The term is also applied to a Far-Eastern sheath, often highly decorated, holding a single-edged knife for food preparation and a set of chop sticks.

Utility Pattern Knife

A large equal-end knife which traditionally carries four blades/tools: a full-length blade, a can opener, a screwdriver/bottle-cap lifter combination, and a leather awl. The typical official Boy Scouts of America knife is a utility pattern (See: Scout Knife). In Europe this knife usually has two extra blades on the back, one of which is usually a corkscrew. The Europeans refer to these knives generically as “pradels” although there is also a French manufacturer named Pradel; in America we refer to them as Six-Blade Utility Knives

Six-Blade Utility Knife

Folding Knife Patterns

Vendetta Knife

A folding version of the Mediterranean dagger, popular in Corsica. Typically, the handle tapers from its head toward a single, long bolster which flares dramatically at the pivot point.

Walk & Talk       

When a pocket knife blade is approximately 90% open or closed it should quickly “snap” the last 10% or so of the way under the power of its spring, without having to be pushed.  Collectors then say the blade “walks and talks.”  In recent years this term has been widely replaced by “snap.”

Whaler, New England

A small rope knife. The whaler does not have a bail.

Wharncliffe Blade

A blade with a straight cutting edge and a long, gently arced spine ending in an extremely acute point. The blade is named in honor of Lord Wharncliffe, the man who designed it, and who was a patron of Joseph Rodgers & Sons of Sheffield, England. This term has been misused a lot in recent years as blades with straight and slightly concaved edges have become increasingly popular. See also: Sheepfoot Blade, Lamb Foot Blade.

Blade Shapes

Wharncliffe Pen Knife

A serpentine pen knife with a very pronounced taper and curve; in the 19th century it would have had a Wharncliffe blade at its larger end but later examples do not necessarily carry that specific blade. Technically, these later examples with clip or spear point master blades should be classified as Serpentine Pen Knives. See also: Serpentine Pen Knife, Baby Copperhead

Serpentine Pen Knife (does not have a Wharncliffe master blade)

Folding Knife Patterns

Whittler (all)

A “whittler,” in collector terms, is not necessarily a knife for whittling, but a technical term for a specific style of knife construction. “Whittler” is considered a pattern, but a whittler can be made on any handle die. They can be pen knives, cattle knives, stockmen, lobsters, or other styles, but they always have three blades (four in the case of a lobster whittler.) To some collectors, a whittler must have three cutting blades (no nail files or the like). But here’s one universal truth: the large blade on one end always falls between the two blades on the opposite end when closed.

See: Split-Spring Whittler; Whittler, Lobster; Whittler, Three-Backspring; Whittler, Five-Blade; Whittler, Catch Bit; Whittler, Tapered Divider

Folding Knife Patterns

Wire Jack

A folding knife having the handle formed from bent wire. Invented by George Schrade.

Folding Knife Patterns

Wood

The most popular woods used on old factory folders are cocobolo, ebony, rosewood, and walnut. Custom knifemakers use a wide variety of more exotic woods with dramatic colors and grain patterns. Wood can be dyed and/or cut into thin slabs and laminated for dramatic effect. See: Stabilized

Wootz

The original damascus steel, also known as crucible damascus steel. This is not a welded damascus steel, its patterning comes from its structure as initially formed in the crucible.

Blade Materials

Worm Groove (Bone)

Some manufacturers cut long, extra-wide grooves into their bone handles in addition the basic jigging.  These grooves are thought to represent channels made in the bone by “worms” (or insects), and are supposedly a desirable aesthetic characteristic. Cattaraugus initiated this design element calling it “Indian Trail.”

[caption id=”attachment_77960″ align=”alignnone” width=”800″] Worm Groove Bone on a Cattaraugus Jumbo Jack[/caption]

Handle Materials

Wrench Knife

Similar to the plier knife but having a wrench attached to or integral to the handle.

Zytel®

DuPont’s trademarked name for a modern plastic material made of fiberglass-reinforced nylon, introduced in 1985. It is usually black but can be made in other colors. Zytel and similar FRN products have become the de-facto standard handle material for less expensive hard-use knives of modern construction.

Handle Materials

Pattern

A word about knife shapes: The specific names that are given to the different shapes and styles of knives are called “patterns.” A knife’s pattern name can be based on the handle die, or shape of the handle (e.g. fishtail jacks), a specific function of the knife (e.g. pruners), or a specific design feature (e.g.whittlers). There are dozens of these terms and descriptive modifiers. A handle die can have its own pattern name but with a particular blade, or combination of blades, be given a different pattern name.

Equal-End Jack

An equal-end jack has equally-rounded bolsters at both ends and straight, or nearly straight sides. There are wide and very narrow Equal-End Jacks, whearas equal-end pen knives are usually narrow.

Folding Knife Patterns

Slim Jack

A slim jack is a regular jack that is more narrow, relative to its length, than a regular jack.

Folding Knife Patterns

Sleeveboard Jack

Jack knife employing a handle die with straight sides which taper slightly and is widest at the pivot end. It looks like the diminutive ironing board used to press shirt sleeves.

Folding Knife Patterns

Jack Knife

A knife with all its blades pivoting at the same end and on the same side (a single-bladed knife is automatically a jack knife). See: Pen Knife and Multi-blade.

Folding Knife Patterns

Swayback Jack

A jack with a pronounced downward curve and often a pronounced, rounded end. The blade folds into the convex portion of the handle shape.

Folding Knife Patterns

Swell-End Jack (Teardrop Jack)

A Regular or Sleeveboard jack which has a pronounced swell or “pear” shape opposite the blade end. Sometimes called a “teardrop.” Commonly confused with the Regular Jack, which  has a straight taper to the handle. See: Regular Jack.

Folding Knife Patterns

Easy Opener Pattern

Any pattern of knife with a half-round notch cut into the handle top allow grasping the blade with a thumb and finger. Easy openers are often built on Swell End Jack frames but can be built as other patterns, such as Regular Jacks. Not to be confused with “Nail Reliefs.”

Folding Knife Patterns

Teardrop Jack

See: Swell-End Jack

Folding Knife Patterns

Swell-Center Jack

If you take a jack knife and widen the center of the handle, so that it swells out and then narrows again, it becomes a Swell-Center jack. If wider at the head end, the shape is commonly referred to as a “Coke Bottle” knife.

Coke Bottle Jack

Folding Knife Patterns

Stabber Jack

A single-bladed (sometimes double bladed) jack knife with a false edge along the spine of the blade used to be called a “Stabber Jack.” Usually built on a Swell Center or Coke Bottle shaped Frame. “Stabber Pattern” was used long ago to denote very inexpensive Regular Jacks.

Folding Knife Patterns

Gunstock Jack

A (usually, fairly small) Swell-Center Jack variant on which the swell on the blade side does not narrow toward the non-blade end. The handle resembles a rifle stock. See: Crown Jack (similar pattern).

This is NOT a Gunstock Jack, but a Crown Jack; the Gunstock Jack’s form is more exaggerated.

Folding Knife Patterns

Serpentine Jack

A jack knife with a serpentine shape (aka Premium Jack). This pattern does NOT taper significantly from one end to the other. If there is a pronounced taper to the handles, and the blades pivot at the small end, the pattern is called a “Dogleg” or “Reverse Dogleg” depending on which way the cap end curves.

Folding Knife Patterns

Wharncliffe Jack

A Serpentine Jack with an even more pronounced taper and the blades pivoted at the wide end. The Wharncliffe is usually a smaller knife and should have a Wharncliffe blade although most made since the 19th Century do not. Named in honor of Lord Wharncliffe, a patron of Joseph Rodgers & Sons of Sheffield, England.

Folding Knife Patterns

Slim Serpentine Jack

A long (around four inches) and narrow Serpentine Jack with a clip blade and a pen secondary blade.

Eureka Jack

This pattern is a Swell-Center Serpentine with the blades pivoted at the narrow end and round cap bolsters. Western States called it the “Eureka” pattern.

Folding Knife Patterns

Surveyor Pattern

Essentially a Swell-Center Canoe Pattern, though the shaping is usually more subtle.

Folding Knife Patterns

Bowtie

See: Fishtail Jack

Folding Knife Patterns

Double-End Jack

Some knives with blades at both ends are too large and robust to be called “pen” knives. These are referred to a “Double-End Jacks.” Many knives that are technically double end jacks are referred to by specific names: e.g. Sunfish, Muskrat, Moose, Jumbo Sleeveboard, etc.

Folding Knife Patterns

Moose

A Double-end Jack knife with two large, equally long blades.

Moose with serpentine handle frame.

Folding Knife Patterns

Texas Jack

Another name for the “Moose” Pattern.

Folding Knife Patterns

Harness Jack (Harness Knife)

A Jack Knife, in any of several patterns, which carries a large main blade and a punch as the second blade.

Folding Knife Patterns

Janitor’s Knife

An Electrician’s Knife with the addition of a Pruning, or Hawkbill blade.

Grafting Knife

A grafting knife is used in the process of attaching a small, living limb (the “cutting”) of one species of tree onto a limb or the trunk (the “stock”) of another species by making an incision into the bark of the host tree and inserting and sealing the cutting in it so that the cutting becomes part of the host tree. Budding is the same process using a bud rather than a cutting. The blade of a grafting knife is usually a spey and a specialized, non-metallic tool called a “spud” is often attached to, or folds out of, or is integral to the opposite end of the handle. Some grafting knives have a beveled hump, near the blade’s tip, which serves as the spud. The spud is used to hold open the incision while placing the cutting.

Folding Knife Patterns

Florist’s Knife

A slim serpentine, or double-ended jack knife, with “Say It With Flowers” inscribed on the plastic handles. Florist’s knives have a sheepfoot, or sheepfoot and spey, blade(s).

Folding Knife Patterns

Yachtsman’s Knife

A type of rope knife with a non-locking “marlin spike.” See also: Riggers knife.

Folding Knife Patterns

Sailor’s Knife

See: Rope Knife; Rigging Knife; New England Whaler; Yachtsman’s Knife.

Folding Knife Patterns

Timber Scribe

See: Rase Knife.

Folding Knife Patterns

Spatula Knife

A barehead slim or sleeveboard jack which carries a flexible spatula as its only blade. They were used by pharmacists for working with pills and powders and by artists as palette knives.

Folding Knife Patterns

Barlow

1) A barehead regular jack with an extra-long bolster. It is usually a less expensive knife, with plain handles but can occasionally be found with premium handles such as stag or pearl. The common barlow knife is about 3 3/8″ long but “daddy” barlows and “grandaddy” barlows can be five inches long. 2) The name of a 17th and 18th century family of cutlers from Sheffield, England, credited with developing the pattern. 3) Currently the name of a Japanese manufacturer of inexpensive, all-metal, promotional knives.

Trapper, Double-Ended

An exception to the “jack knife” rule (see: trapper, standard); an equal-end handle-die trapper with the clip and spey blades at opposite ends. Typified by the Remington R4353 Bullet Pattern and its smaller brother, the R4466 Baby Bullet. Commonly called a “Large Muskrat” pattern, which is incorrect as the blade configuration does NOT follow the Muskrat knife’s standard of having two pointy clip blades.

Folding Knife Patterns

Sleeveboard Pen

Pen knife with a handle die having straight sides which taper slightly.

Sleeveboard Pen with tip bolsters

Folding Knife Patterns

Wharncliffe Knife

Generally, a Wharncliffe Pen Knife.

Folding Knife Patterns

Blade Lifts

Small extensions out of, or tiny knobs attached to, the spine of a pen knife’s blade to facilitate grasping and opening the blade.

Knife Parts

Feist Knife

An antique spelling of “feast” knife. Before forks came into popular use people often used their knife to scoop food from their plate. A feast knife (usually a springless knife with a curved handle) had a wide blade which could flare to over an inch at the tip, which served as a blade and a “spoon” for eating.

Physician’s Knife

A long, thin, regular jack knife which has a flat, one-piece, “seal cap” covering the entire head-end of the knife.  The sealed end was used by old-time physicians as an emergency pestle to grind up pills, making them easier to swallow when mixed with water.  If the bolsters, liners, and springs are exposed at the knife’s head the medicine could get impacted between those parts and/or oil from the knife could mix into the medication.  Some doctor’s knives also have a folding spatula as one of the blades.  A long, slim, jack without a seal cap is a “slim jack.”

Folding Knife Patterns

Half Stop

If a knife’s tang is flat at the back end the blade stops distinctly when it is opened or closed half-way (90 degrees). This is called a half-stop. The tang of the above blade features a half-stop.

This blade has a rounded tang end, which means it will NOT stop at 90 degrees when it is opened.

Knife Parts

Slipjoint

A slipjoint is one of the most common types of folding knife. It consists of a handle with one or more blades held in position by a back spring which biases them in the open or closed position.

Fish Gaff Blade

A blade usually found in a specialized Fish Gaff Pattern, pointed on the end and with a U-curved shape about 1 1/4″ across, for lifting a fish into the net.

Blade Shapes

Fleam Blade

A  short, double-edged blade is made as an extension on the side of a long tang. Fleam blades 1/2″ wide or more are veterinary instruments. They were struck, on the blade’s spine, with a “bloodstick.” Single, folding fleams are sometimes found mounted next to a liner, and without a spring, in horseman’s knives. Do not confuse Ink Erasers with fleams or scalpels.

Don’t let anybody convince you that this is anything but an Ink Eraser blade.

Blade Shapes

Ink Eraser Blade

A short, double-edged blade used to “erase” ink by scraping it from parchment, vellum, and paper.

Blade Shapes

Spay

Common misspelling of “Spey” (the knife term). See Spey Blade, Spey Knife.

Budding Blade

Blade with a dull, beveled “horn” near its tip, to serve as a spud in a budding knife.

Blade Shapes

Tang [Fixed Blade Knife]

The Tang of a fixed-blade knife is the part inside the handle. On a fixed-blade knife, the unsharpened area where the blade meets the guard and/or the handle is called the “Ricasso.”  See: Ricasso, Tang [Folding Knife]

Rat-tail Tang or Push Tang Construction

Knife Parts

Jumbo Trapper (Mountain Man Pattern, Bullet Pattern)

Folding Knife Patterns

Utility Knife, Six-Blade (Six-Blade Utility Knife)

A more European-styled version of the American Utility Knife with two extra blades on the back, one of which is usually a corkscrew. This pattern may or may not be equal ended. The Europeans refer to these knives generically as “pradels” although there is also a French manufacturer named Pradel; in America we refer to them as Six-Blade Utility Knives.

Folding Knife Patterns

Baby Copperhead Pattern

A Serpentine Pen Knife that narrows towards one end, then swells wider at the very tip. (The ‘Copperhead” characteristic is that widening, see also: Copperhead Pattern)

Folding Knife Patterns

Serpentine Pen Knife

A pen knife pattern having a handle which has a slight “S” curve. The handle may be tapered or untapered from end to end.

Folding Knife Patterns

Copperhead Pattern

A jack knife with bolsters that widen significantly at the pivot end, typified by Case’s 6249 pattern (pictured). The Case C61050 is a Copperhead version of a Coke Bottle Folding Hunter (61050).

Case C61050 folding hunter

Folding Knife Patterns

Folding Guard [Folding Knives]

A folding guard is a guard that folds flat when the blade is closed, but moves into position when the blade is opened. Generally knives with this feature are rather large and have locking blades. A popular pattern with this feature is the Case 61011-1/2, commonly known as the “Cheetah”.

Knife Parts

Folding Guard [Fixed Blade Knives]

Guards that fold into the handle are rarely found on fixed blade knives, but examples (usually European-made) do exist.

Knife Parts

Split-Spring Jack

A Split-Spring Jack has ONE hand forged solid spring that is literally split into two parts for about half of its length (from the two-blade end.) These date from the 19th century and are rare.    See: Split-Spring Whittler

Folding Knife Patterns

Whittler, Lobster (Lobster Whittler)

A Lobster Whittler is a lobster pattern knife constructed as a whittler on ‘top’ but with the two springs working against both the master blade on top and the manicure blade on ‘bottom’. The two secondary blades are each worked against a single spring as is the case with a standard whittler. See also: Whittler

Folding Knife Patterns

Whittler, Three-Backspring (Three-Backspring Whittler)

Technically, a knife with three blades and three backsprings cannot be a whittler because it violates the basic principle of the master blade riding simultaneously on two backsprings. However, because collectors like whittlers and want as many as they can get, the “three backspring whittler” has become a ‘thing.’  These do, at least, fulfill the criteria of the master blade falling between the smaller two blades, but they use a separate “cap-end” (single-ended) backspring for each blade. These were often made in larger patterns and as such are very collectible. See also: Whittler

If one were to take a three backspring whittler and place blades on both ends of the outer springs – a “five bladed whittler” has been created. See: Whittler, Five Blade.

Folding Knife Patterns

Whittler, Five Blade (Five Blade Whittler, Five Bladed Whittler)

If you don’t think three-backspring whittlers are true whittlers, you’re really not going to like this one.

Whatever you may call them (maybe just a five-blade penknife), these knives are rare and generally of very fine quality. See also: Whittler

Folding Knife Patterns

Whittler, Catch Bit (Catch Bit Whittler)

A type of whittler that uses a small spacer to separate the two smaller blades but does NOT separate the backsprings, allowing them to run parallel the length of the knife. The spacer is called a “catch bit,” so “catch bit whittler” seems like a good name for this type.

Folding Knife Patterns

Whittler, Tapered Divider (Tapered Divider Whittler)

This view of a whittler’s backsprings shows the center liner that separates the two smaller blades at one end, and tapers down to nothing so both springs can apply tension to the master blade. It has become popular to use the modern (and misleading) term “Split Backspring Whittler” for this, but a better term would be “Tapered Liner” or “Tapered Divider” whittler. The reason why “Split Backspring Whittler” is a poor term for this is because a few early 19th century English whittlers actually used a single hand forged backspring that was split halfway up so as to operate all three blades. See: Split-Spring (Whittler)

Folding Knife Patterns

Muskrat, Large (Large Muskrat)

See: Trapper, Double-Ended

Folding Knife Patterns

Trapper Jack

A jack knife that utilizes the same 4″ to 4 1/4″ long Reverse Dogleg Jack handle die as a trapper, but with a clip point master blade and secondary pen blade.  (Center knife in photo) See: Trapper, Standard 

Folding Knife Patterns

FRN

See: Fiberglass Reinforced Nylon

Handle Materials

Fiberglass Reinforced Nylon

More commonly known by the trademarked name originated by its developer, DuPont, fiberglass-reinforced nylon was introduced in 1985 and has become the de-facto standard handle material for less expensive hard-use knives of modern construction. It is usually black but can be made in other colors. See also: Zytel®

Handle Materials

Sheath

A blade covering device, sometimes highly decorative, and designed to protect the owner from being cut while the knife is being stored or transported.

Knife Pistol

Any knife with a pistol built into it or a pistol with a knife blade attached or folding out of it. In the first case it is considered a “disguised weapon” and a Federal Tax Stamp is required to legally own it. (Pictured, Sheffield made Unwin & Rodgers knife pistol, percussion model, mid-19th century; from the cover story of the December 2016 edition of KNIFE Magazine)

Folding Knife Patterns

Quillion

Common mis-spelling of Quillon, popularized by its accidental use in Harold Petersen’s influential book “American Knives” (1958).

Knife Parts

Cap Lifter Knife

See: Bottle Opener Knife

Folding Knife Patterns

Notch Hollow

See: Nail Relief

Knife Parts

Nail Relief

A small groove cut into the inner edge of a liner/handle for access to the pull. Also referred to as a Notch Hollow. (Illustration from the Winchester Model Drawings notebook, available in our Digital Library)

Knife Parts

Scale

See: Handle Scale

Knife Parts

Shackle

See: Bail

Knife Parts