Pocketknife

“ In the purchase of a pocket knife, choose one that is small enough to be a constant companion; one, or at most two blades will be found sufficient for one handle. A very convenient description of knife is to be met with in most hardware shops. The handle is straight and flat. A stout stick-cutting blade is at one end of the haft, and a strong scalpel-shaped pen blade at the other. The miniature tool chests sold under the name of pocket knives to emigrants are jacks of all trades in their way, having all sorts of supposed capabilities, associated with a general tendency to uselessness. ”

“ Descended from his flint knife is the abounding variety of steel cutting tools all the way from the razor, concave on both sides, to the axe, doubly convex. As the arts have become more specialized, as artificial power has been introduced, the contrasts of the form of one tool with another have grown more and more striking. The bar which slices metal is stout of build, and rectangular in section, while a lancet is little wider or thicker than a [90] blade of grass. The knives which divide leather, rubber, and rope, differ much from one another ”

“ MAGIC KNIFE. Given for new subscriptions amounting to 50 cents.
The easiest Knife in the world to open, no stiff joints, consequently no broken thumb nails. The blade moves out or in when pressure is applied on the end opposite the blade, according as that end is held down or up. The blade, entirely concealed in the case, is effectually protected from dirt and rust, and there are no sharp corners or projecting points to damage the pocket. A small pocket knife is a necessity with every one, and none better than this for either Lady or Gentleman has ever been produced. ”

“ The next thing that I took out was a pocket-knife. A pocket-knife, I need hardly say, would require a thick book full of moral meditations all to itself. A knife typifies one of the most primary of those practical origins upon which as upon low, thick pillows all our human civilisation reposes. Metals, the mystery of the thing called iron and of the thing called steel, led me off half-dazed into a kind of dream. ”

“ So he lived, eating but little, sleeping fitfully, like a caged animal, lying on his back staring up into the shadows with eyes dilated with long penetration of gloom, lived with his purpose. But at times an agony of cold sweat poured out upon his skin as he thought that perhaps his knife, his precious file-knife, needle-pointed, razor-edged, so well balanced, toward which he was cutting his way through bars of steel with needles, that his knife might not be there, in the niche behind the water-pipe, where he had left it. ”

“ I spoke to him at once, and made him search the tool-house, but he couldn't find the knife. He says he never remembers having seen it, which I believe is true, for I don't think he's had it to clean since he's been here."
"It ought to be somewhere," remarked Mr. Ormond. "The lad's perfectly honest, I should say, and can't have walked off with it. At the same time, a carving-knife isn't a thing that disappears into thin air." ”

“ On taking up these, each owner of the knives will imagine that his remains on the table and his neighbours’ are being used. Even if he suspected a substitution, that would not account for the trick.
Ingenious Variation.—One knife is laid on the cup with its handle outside to maintain the balance; a long knitting-needle, fastened to the knife-handle with a lump of sealing wax, while a leaden bullet at the other end and knife point serves as counterpoise. The glass table is used, and the Magician withdraws to a distance. All of a sudden though, the knife leaps off from the cup. ”

“ The knives, both those used for domestic purposes and those employed in works of labour, are of flint, two edged and with a broad blade, and frequently have handles hollowed out of the stone itself.
Not unfrequently these handles are adorned with regular ornaments; at other times, they are less carefully formed, as if they had been destined to be enveloped or inserted in wood. These knives are usually from three to twelve inches in length. They are scarcely ever polished, probably because the edge is so thin that in most cases it would have broken to pieces in polishing. ”

“ Watson, this knife is surely in your line?”
“It is what we call a cataract knife,” said I.
“I thought so. A very delicate blade devised for very delicate work. A strange thing for a man to carry with him upon a rough expedition, especially as it would not shut in his pocket.”
“The tip was guarded by a disk of cork which we found beside his body,” said the Inspector. “His wife tells us that the knife had lain upon the dressing-table, and that he had picked it up as he left the room. It was a poor weapon, but perhaps the best that he could lay his hands on at the moment.” ”

“ I have seen flint knives in outline very like Fig. 240 in the museums at Cracow, Moscow, and Kiev. Some are highly polished by friction and may have served as sickles.
It is difficult to assign any definite use to the British form of knife, but as the curvature is evidently intentional, and as probably it was more difficult to chip out such curved blades than it would have been to make them straight, there must have been some advantage resulting from the form. As both edges of the blade are sharp, it is hard to say whether the convex or concave edge was the principal object. ”

“ The late Sir Edward Belcher showed me an Eskimo "flensing knife," from Icy Cape, hafted in much the same manner. The blade is an ovate piece of slate about 5 inches long, and is let into a handle made of several pieces of wood, extending along nearly half the circumference, and secured together by resin. Other specimens of the same kind are in the British Museum, and in the Ethnological Museum at Copenhagen. The stone blades are more like the flat Picts' [156] knives, such as Fig. 263, than ordinary flint flakes. ”

“ Between the leather and the board there is placed a pad of cotton wool, and over the wool a pad of blotting-paper. The gold knife is a thin, pliant, two-edged knife without a sharp edge, in fact it is better to blunt the fore-edge from time to time by rubbing it on a polished steel. If the knife is too sharp it will cut the leather cushion. Taking the gold from the book will not be found a very easy task. The top leaf covering the gold is turned back, the book with the uncovered leaf of gold laid on the cushion, and the book slowly lifted up. ”

“ And it had been so simple, thought Nelson. He handed Glynnis the extra pack. "Take this." She accepted it wordlessly and slipped her arms into the straps. "Oh," he added, as an afterthought. "Let me show you something." He reached into the pack and drew out a knife. A good one with a long plasteel blade that would not chip or corrode like hers. He handed it to her and imagined her smiling face in the darkness.
"It doesn't feel like metal," she said, after she had taken the knife from its scabbard.
"It isn't. It's a kind of plastic, stronger than most metals. Do you like it?" ”

“ Mon ́-hin Wa-ḳon ́-da, Mysterious Knife. From the White Rock the people went forth to wander over the earth. They thought to make for themselves a knife for ceremonial use. The Sho ́-ḳa went again and again to find the right kind of stone of which to make the knife. He brought home the red flint, the blue flint, the flint streaked with yellow, the black flint and the white flint, one after the other, each of which was rejected as being unfit for use by the little ones as a knife. ”

“ GUN SLING. Cutlery.
Knives.
Tools.
Do not be induced to encumber yourself with one of those ornamented, highly polished, useless abominations popularly known as hunting knives; they are worse than useless, and only serve to exasperate the owner. For general rough and ready work, nothing is better than a strong well-made butcher’s knife. The blade should be continued through the handle, which is formed by pinning two cheeks of hard wood or horn together. The hand grip should be long, and the steel sufficiently soft to be cut by a common hand saw file ”

“ The cane-knife, of which the negroes made use, is a formidable weapon, and does its work something after the fashion of a hatchet or short bill-hook. The handle is a square bar of steel an inch thick, and the blade, which is some two feet long, widens regularly out to a breadth of three inches at the end. In the grasp of a strong arm like that of Cinquè, it is as sure and deadly as the guillotine. ”

“ A butcher knife of good make is one of the best and cheapest of sheath knives. The common mistake among amateur hunters is that of buying too heavy a knife with too thick a blade. Unless you expect to indulge in hand to hand conflicts, or cut brush, such a weapon is excessive. I myself have carried for the last seven years a rather thin and broad blade made by the Marble Axe Company on the butcher knife pattern. This [67] company advertises in its catalogue a knife as used by myself. They are mistaken. The knife I mean is a longer bladed affair, called a "kitchen or camp knife." ”

“ He must be very fond of her, for he gives her one day his chiefest treasure, to wit, a huge pocket-knife with four rusty blades and a corkscrew, which latter has a knack of working itself out in some mysterious manner and sticking into its owner's leg. She is an affectionate little thing, and she throws her arms round his neck and kisses him for it, then and there, outside the shop. ”

“ Size. Whiting. Putty Knife. Badger Tool. Duster. Gold Leaf Knife. Cushion. Tip.
The principal tools required by the Gilder are, first: the cushion, which is a flat board covered with several layers of woollen or flannel and afterwards with a piece of leather, which is stretched tightly over it and nailed down [117] to the edges, thus forming a firm but soft and elastic bed. A rim of parchment carried round one end of the cushion serves to hold the gold leaf. Second: a gold leaf knife—which is a straight smooth-edged instrument, not very sharp, but carefully pointed at the end. ”

“ The holes in the knives being larger than the bolts, makes the knives adjustable for setting the cutting edges. These knives may be made from an old saw blade, ground to size and one edge beveled and sharpened. A brass plate, with holes to fit the spur center, is fastened in the center of the block, on one end, and the other is centered for the cup of the tailstock screw. The adjusting screw for the table is used to regulate the cut. ”

“ It was what is termed a “jack-knife,” with a buckhorn handle, and but one blade—a sort in common use among sailors, who usually carry them on a string passed around the neck, and to which the knife is attached by a hole drilled in the haft. The blade was a square one, drawn to an angular point, and shaped somewhat like the blade of a razor. Like the latter, too, the back was thick and strong, as I could tell by the “feel.” I was gratified at perceiving this, for I knew that it would require a strong blade to hew a hole through the tough staves of oak. ”

“ FIG. 20.—PAIR OF DECORATED SPOONS.
(In the Victoria and Albert Museum.)
Strange to say that although knives and forks have been crossed in reverence, to cross knives has been deemed unlucky, and to present a maiden with a pair of scissors—two crossed blades—has long been held by those who believe in such signs as unlucky.{95} To give a knife is to "cut luck"—so the legend runs; hence so many when presenting a pocket knife will demand a penny (as the smallest coin when silver pennies were in circulation) in return. ”

“ The only instruments used in pocket-picking are a sharp penknife or a pair of scissors, and a pair of pleirs—the former for ripping pockets and ladies’ dresses; the latter for cutting watch-guards. This instrument is generally like the one here illustrated. Watches are taken from the pocket much the same as purses. A thief will always make a venture or “throw a chance away,” as he calls it, when he sees a gold chain. No matter where the watch of the lady or gentleman is worn, the thief runs his finger along the guard, which at once guides him to the watch. ”

“ Hard as it may be for us to conceive why a man should choose to identify himself with a knife, whether “darding” or otherwise, we have to remember that in Celebes it is to a chopping-knife or other iron tool that the soul of a woman in labour is transferred for safety;670 and the difference between a chopping-knife and a “darding” knife, considered as a receptacle for a human soul, is perhaps not very material. ”

“ But they have still knives of another sort, which are sometimes near two feet long, shaped almost like a dagger, with a ridge in the middle. These they wear in sheaths of skins, hung by a thong round the neck, under their robe, and they are, probably, only used as weapons; the other knives being apparently applied to other purposes. Every thing they have, however, is as well and ingeniously made, as if they were furnished with the most complete tool-chest ”

“ Except on an extended trip you will not need a sheath knife. One with a five-inch blade and housed in a leather sheath with belt loop is best. A good butcher knife makes an admirable implement for the purpose. The waterproof match box of metal or rubber should always be carried on the person and see to it that it is kept well filled. The supply for this pocket safe is to be drawn from the moisture tight match can carried in the pack sack. ”

“ Thus a knife an inch long, weighing eight pennyweights six grains, containing seventy odd blades and instruments, cost £30 in making: scissors the eighth of an inch long, twenty-five of which weigh but a grain, sold at 3s. per pair: a knife, mounted in gold and pearl, containing thirty blades, is valued at £30; pocket-knives with twenty-six parts are sold at six guineas; the very best two blades mounted with pearl and gold, made by Crawshaw, are in common sale at two guineas in Sheffield. ”