Penknife
Encyclopedia
Pocket knife
A pocket knife is a folding knife with one or more blades that fit inside the handle that can still fit in a pocket. It is also known as a jackknife or jack-knife...
, originally used for cutting or sharpening a quill
Quill
A quill pen is a writing implement made from a flight feather of a large bird. Quills were used for writing with ink before the invention of the dip pen, metal-nibbed pens, the fountain pen, and, eventually, the ballpoint pen...
to make a pen nib
Dip pen
A dip pen or nib pen usually consists of a metal nib with capillary channels like those of fountain pen nibs, mounted on a handle or holder, often made of wood. Other materials can be used for the holder, including bone, metal and plastic, while some pens are made entirely of glass...
. Originally, penknives did not necessarily have folding blade
Blade
A blade is that portion of a tool, weapon, or machine with a cutting edge and/or a pointed tip that is designed to cut and/or puncture, stab, slash, chop, slice, thrust, or scrape animate or inanimate surfaces or materials...
s, but resembled a scalpel
Scalpel
A scalpel, or lancet, is a small and extremely sharp bladed instrument used for surgery, anatomical dissection, and various arts and crafts . Scalpels may be single-use disposable or re-usable. Re-usable scalpels can have attached, resharpenable blades or, more commonly, non-attached, replaceable...
or wood knife by having a short, fixed blade at the end of a long handle. These knives were used for thinning and pointing quills to prepare them for use as writing instruments and, later, for repairing or re-pointing the quills. Modern penknives may have single or multiple blades and additional tools incorporated into the design.
Over the last hundred years, there has been a proliferation of multi-function knives with multifarious and often ingenious gadgets including awls
Stitching awl
A stitching awl is a simple tool with which holes can be punctured in a variety of materials, or existing holes can be enlarged. It is also used for sewing heavy materials, such as leather or canvas. It is a thin, tapered metal shaft, coming to a sharp point, either straight or slightly bent....
, reamers, scissors
Scissors
Scissors are hand-operated cutting instruments. They consist of a pair of metal blades pivoted so that the sharpened edges slide against each other when the handles opposite to the pivot are closed. Scissors are used for cutting various thin materials, such as paper, cardboard, metal foil, thin...
, nail files, corkscrews, tweezers
Tweezers
Tweezers are tools used for picking up and manipulating objects too small to be easily handled with the human hands. They are probably derived from tongs, pincers, or scissors-like pliers used to grab or hold hot objects since the dawn of recorded history...
, toothpicks, and so on, and the tradition continues with the incorporation of modern devices such as ballpoint pens, LED
LEd
LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....
flashlights, and USB flash drives.
The most famous example of a multi-function knife is the Swiss Army knife
Swiss Army knife
The Swiss Army knife is a brand of pocket knife or multi-tool manufactured by Victorinox AG and Wenger SA. The term "Swiss Army knife" was coined by US soldiers after World War II due to the difficulty they had in pronouncing the German name....
, some versions of which number dozens of functions and are really more of a folding multi-tool
Multi-tool
A multi-tool is any one of a range of portable, versatile hand tools that combines several individual functions in a single unit...
, incorporating a blade or two, than a penknife with extras.
A larger folding knife, especially one in which the blade locks into place, is often called a claspknife.
Robert Stewart (Viscount Castlereagh)
Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh
Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, KG, GCH, PC, PC , usually known as Lord CastlereaghThe name Castlereagh derives from the baronies of Castlereagh and Ards, in which the manors of Newtownards and Comber were located...
committed suicide with a pen knife, not a letter opener
Letter opener
A paper knife or letter opener is a knife-like object used to open envelopes or to slit uncut pages of books. Electric versions are also available, which work by using motors to slide the envelopes across a blade...
(as both articles previously erroneously stated), in 1822.
External links
- http://www.victorinox.ch/index.cfm?page=0&lang=E
- http://www.wengerna.com/index.html
- http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pen%20knife