KNIFE. A cutting tool of steel, german silver, silver, gold, bone, horn, wood or other material. According to the purposes for which it is constructed it is called bread-knife, pen knife, table-knife, erasing-knife, paper-knife, butchers'-knife, etc. Knives can be divided into two broad classifications as having blades that fold into or onto the handle and those that have fixed blades. The essential parts of a knife are its blades and its handle (known as a haft); exceptions to the rule are those con sisting solely of a blade, as those used by furriers, cigarmakers, etc. The knife haft generally consists of wood, bone, ivory, horn, metal, mother-of-pearl, etc. For the technical make-up of knives see under article CUTLERY.
In its most primitive form the knife was fornted from a piece of flint or other stone. The chipped and polished flint knives of the Stone Age (many are extant) are frequently wonderfully formed and show con summate skill in construction. They have keen, practical cutting edges, the ends usually pointed. These are found in nearly all parts of the globe.. With the discovery of bronze (Bronze Age). knife blades were among the earliest utensils to be made from this metal. These are found in numbers in the ancient prehistoric villages of Switzerland, some being fastened to handles of the same metal. In the antique classical period knife blades were made of bronze, iron and copper; the copper being hard ened, probably by hammering. In ancient Rome bronze knives were reserved for religious rites. The hafts (handles) of this period are found in ivory, bone or bronze and of varying forms, sometimes the blades of these early knives folded into a groove in the handle. Some were carried in a sheath hung from the belt; the Gallo-Romanesque tombs furnish such, the ex terior being of wood and the inside of iron. The ancient sacrificial knife often figures on carved monuments. While a few of the early Greeks used knives at meals, it was usual to serve the meat and other foods cut up, the guests picking up the viands with their fingers and tearing it up with their teeth. For cutting up fruit they used bone knives; they also knew the use of hunting knives. In the 1st century the Chinese used copper knives as coins, known as Dau tsien.
The Franks (Germanic tribes, about 240 A.D.) carried an iron knife suspended from the belt, often enclosed within the same sheath as the dagger. In the Middle Ages steel-bladed knives appear, toward the 14th century. Sheffield, England, was the centre of a steel industry and Langres, France, was renowned, as well as Moulins, already for their steel knives in 1427. By the 17th century the blades were often decorated with chased and gold inlaid designs. Knife handles of that period are found in ivory, bone, mother-of-pearl, silver, copper, steel, and wood. By the 16th century
knife handles often assume the form of fig urines or caryatids. During the Middle Ages one of the luxuries of the seigneurs consisted of having a table service of knives of which the handles varied according to the period of the liturgical year; the ebony handles were re served for the period of Lent, those of ivory for Easter. Knives were employed in battle; the French termed them, in the 15th century, couteaux de &riche. Knives figuring among the knights were often highly decorated; that of Louis le Bon (extant) has its handle of hard wood ornamented with bands of silver-gilt and enamels. On the handles were initials, ciphers, the owners' coats-of-arms; enamel work, inlaid precious stones vie with arabesques and engrav ings in the decoration. The knight's knife was generally in a sheath or scabbard. The knife sheath in Bamberg Castle dates back, probably, to the 10th century and is, perhaps, the oldest extant; it is of ivory with metal ornamentation. The hunting knife of the Middle Ages (the couteau de chime of the French) was a most elaborate equipment and consisted of a highly decorated sheath containing, besides the heavy bladed huntsman's knife for killing the game and cutting it up, a set of smaller utensils arranged around it in the sheath. These latter were three small knives, a fork and a bodkin. In the sheath or case for use at table there were three knives: one large one called a trencher knife (couteau d trencher) for cutting into slices or pieces (tranche) of which the very large blade terminated in a crescent-shaped point with which to pick up the pieces and serve on the guests' plates; another large knife with two cutting edges; a smaller knife that was placed in front of the host. A favorite method of decorating leather sheaths in the 14th and 15th centuries was to burn or brand designs on the outside. In the refectories of the convents they used knives whose blades had engraved on one side the Benediction and on the other side 'Mei Gratiasp (grace after meals), the musical notes of the chant being cut into the metal. The oyster knife appeared as early as the 16th century. As to folding knives, after being already known to the Romans they prob ably never went out of use entirely; we read in an inventory of 1380 of as little knife, of silver handle shaped like a lily, of which the blade folds back into the handle." Clasp or spring knives came into common use in middle of the 17th century. The large strong, clasp knife is frequently termed a uJackS knife; this kind of knife is said to have been introduced into England during the reign of James I (early 17th century) and to have received its name from this fact; it had no spring but the blade closed into the haft. See also