Penknives and Other Folding Knives

The term 'penknife' is a misnomer for what is correctly called a pocket knife. It was originally applied to folding knives that evolved from earlier scribes' knives during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but the history of folding knives goes back two thousand years. Not until the mid seventeenth century were these useful tools fully established, with the invention of the spring-back to hold the balde open or closed. They evolved into a multiplicity of shapes and sizes, often combining as many uses as the number of blades that cutlers could mount into the handle. This book traces the history of folding knives, describing a wide variety of the types produced up to the present day.