600 BC so the start of the Roman Republic as opposed to after the end of the Roman Empire.
Why a folding knife
- Thread starter TLM
- Start date
-
BushMoot: Come along to the amazing Summer Moot 31st July - 5th August (extended Moot : 27th July - 8th August), a festival of bushcrafting and camping in a beautiful woodland PLEASE CLICK HERE for more information.
My point was that the argument of hiding it would not make sense at that time due to the lack of restrictions.
The folder must serve a purpose that a fixed blade does not for people who could walk around carrying swords and axes.
My money is on messy tasks or jobs like being at sea. They wanted to protect themselves from the edge and keep their sheaths clean.
While a fixed blade is obviously better in general the stowability and size advantage of a folding knife sometimes make it more convenient. For example yesterday I needed to cut back some thorns and tie up a gate with some string. I held back the thorn branches with one gloved hand and pulled a SAK soldiers knife out of my pocket, one-handed opened it and cut the thorn bushes back using the other hand. A folding knife was easier to carry and use in that situation than a fixed knife or some loppers would have been.
If they had a ban on knives in Republican Rome, just think Julius Caesar would still be alive today.
Same old , same old , same old. I have nothing to add to what's already been said......but here's a thought.....how else can one manage to cut the fingers of the hand that holds the knife?
Regards and laughs to all
Ceeg
Regards and laughs to all
Ceeg
Has anyone here actually done that?
How common is it compared with someone cutting or stabbing themselves with any sort of knife?
I doubt that the concept would have caught on if it happened much in the days before spring mechanisms; when a folder was just that.
It must take some doing.
Fixed and folding: two different tools with overlapping uses.
I live in England. Any visible knife would be seen as threatening. Times have moved on... but that idea had to have started somewhere down the line. A visible blade, while carried with only practical use in mind, can easily lead to a call to the police and an arrest... Just the world as it is here.
Using a Stanley knife for work purposes for example... Using it at work all day, its in a pocket... you decide to have a couple of pints after work... forget its there...something happens, or someone sees it... that knife is now illegal, because having a locking blade in a pub becomes 'having no good reason', despite the fact it was legal to have in your pocket, before you went to the pub.
Cutting oneself on a folder is more common than you think. Back of the fingers mainly, due to the spring. And springs have been around for what... at least 300 years? Coil springs i mean... the bow itself is a type of spring which has been around for thousands.
Last edited:
The question was why folders originate in the first place 2500 years ago. Your answer in comparison to my post just shows how much peoples reactions vary in different communities, countries and apparently even in fairly short time scale. Present day reactions here are not quite as paranoid as in the UK but basically one is not allowed to carry a knife in public, in practice it varies a lot, in many places in Lapland no one reacts to a puukko or even three carried by a reindeer herder in a cafe.
I did mention in my post before the one you quoted that social situations played a part... Probably the largest part of it. Which i agree, varies greatly from area to area and country to country. Go to London.... get seen with a folder... Panic stations. Go to North Yorkshire, get seen with the same knife, in a similar social situation, most likely, no one will care, and everyone has one. I wouldnt be surprised if similar was the case throughout history. Where and when... depending on the laws and social norms of the time.
Sorry, I can’t think that the initial adoption of folding knives had a social or legal basis.
I am certain that the reason was one of practicality and convenience.
These are still the reasons that I use them today.
These three knives are:
WW2 jack knife. Military issue.
WW1. Military issue.
Victorian sailors knife Naval issue.
They were issued for heavy duty use to people who were not restricted to civil law and who weren’t involved in particularly social environments.
In the case of the two military examples it is quite possible that their owners also carried bayonets.
Folding knives were chosen for a reason. I don’t know what that reason was but I’m certain that it was practical.
Edited to ask:
Presumably the current version of the Jack knife was issued to some members of this forum. Can they tell us what it was used for? Why in preference to a fixed blade?
I am certain that the reason was one of practicality and convenience.
These are still the reasons that I use them today.
These three knives are:
WW2 jack knife. Military issue.
WW1. Military issue.
Victorian sailors knife Naval issue.
They were issued for heavy duty use to people who were not restricted to civil law and who weren’t involved in particularly social environments.
In the case of the two military examples it is quite possible that their owners also carried bayonets.
Folding knives were chosen for a reason. I don’t know what that reason was but I’m certain that it was practical.
Edited to ask:
Presumably the current version of the Jack knife was issued to some members of this forum. Can they tell us what it was used for? Why in preference to a fixed blade?
Last edited:
The Jack knife started as a sailors knife really, at least your examples did.. Well before ww1 maybe a hundred years before at least... Think battle of Trafalgar, British Navy type before.. Marlin spike for splicing ropes, (originally known as a Pussers Dirk, Google it) Blunt tipped blade so the roll of the sea didnt cause you to stab yourself or others, Tin opener (when they added them) for when they started canning provisions. They went on from there. Seeing more use on land, but modified... less for sea, more for land use. And now we have the SAK.
Last edited:
No it was not. Knives have been seen as normal everyday wear as your clothes until the last few decades.
Apologies for being slightly off-topic..
Years ago, having discussed this "tin-opener thing" with the very folk having archival knowledge of such things, It appeared that the jack-knives with tin-openers, were not ,in fact, primarily issued to Naval staff, their provisions were already aboard. Ratings were definitely not doled out tins of food directly, but catering staff did have access to large, table mounted openers.
Regards All
Ceeg
Years ago, having discussed this "tin-opener thing" with the very folk having archival knowledge of such things, It appeared that the jack-knives with tin-openers, were not ,in fact, primarily issued to Naval staff, their provisions were already aboard. Ratings were definitely not doled out tins of food directly, but catering staff did have access to large, table mounted openers.
Regards All
Ceeg
Last few decades? I think it is longer than that, peasants and nobles both would wear a dagger on their belt in the middle ages, but that was before pockets, I don't think knives have been worn as a fashion accessory since then except for National Costume. Well with the exception of teenage boys perhaps.
Similar threads
