A Polish Penny Knife

[44-henry]

Just started working on it this afternoon. This is modeled after one from the region around Karpacza in Poland. Though there are some slight differences in blade shape and significant differences in the turned handle, it is interesting how similar it is to other examples produced in Trattenbach, Austria as well as examples from France and Spain.

As I don't have access to the original and don't feel comfortable posting the photograph that I found online, I am providing my CAD drawing of the knife that I built based off the photographs and written documentation.

Here is my start of the handle. I am using maple here, though I suspect the original that I saw was beech. I think the palm swell makes this a much more comfortable knife to hold than the other Penny Knives that I have built in the past. The handle is a bit over 4 1/8" long and around 7/8 inch in diameter at the palm swell.

 

[44-henry]

Here are a couple pictures I took before this one. After turning the blank round to just over the diameter of the palm swell I established center lines and than started marking off sections on either side of the center. Following that I turned down the tenon on each side of the handle.

To help and get the blank symmetrical I turned each side down in steps. Though this is a different handle made out of a very brash piece of cherry which I decided against using shortly after I took the photo, it illustrates the procedure well enough.

After the steps were turned I switched over to a fine rasp and later sanding pads to smooth out the contours.

 

What's the date of this knife?

 

[44-henry]

Based on what I have found I would guess mid to late 18th century.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

Delightful work, as usual.

 

[omarick1948]

I guess I should know but, "Why are these called Penny Knives"?

 

[Grizzly Adams]

I guess I should know but, "Why are these called Penny Knives"?

I once read the name comes from what they cost back in the day: about a penny. Not 100% sure, so don't quote me. :grin:

 

[BillinOregon]

Alexander, you have a deft hand and a fine eye. Looking forward to seeing this beauty completed.

 

[44-henry]

Many feel, including Bernard Levine, one of the foremost knife experts, that the term "Penny Knife" is a modern one that is used generally to describe any springless friction folder of simple construction. Gene Chapman in his pamphlet on making Penny Knives mentions the theory that these were knives produced in England that sold for a penny and the term seems to have stuck.

I personally disagree with Levine's idea that the term is new since I have found it used at least as far back as the latter part of the 19th century. Lionel Charlton's book on the history of Whitby which was published in 1779 mentions the legend of Penny Hedge, a legend that dates back to the end of the 12th century where the Abbot of Whitby is supposed to have imposed a penance on three hunters. The hunters were supposed to have followed a wounded boar that had taken refuge in a hermitage at Eskdale, the monk living there had interfered with their hunt and they murdered him in their rage. Before he died he supposedly offered them forgiveness if they and their descendants would enact a penance which was that on each year, on the eve of Ascenion day, on the shore of Whitby, a short hedge from stakes woven together, able to withstand three tides, was to be constructed. The interesting part, and what is of interest to us here, is that this hedge was stipulated to be constructed using a knife "of a penny price"

Nothing of the above states that this is a folding knife, only that it was a knife, relatively inexpensive in nature. Still, I have found references to Sheffield's Fuller's Penny Knife and other references in 19th century literature to make me feel comfortable that it is a term that was not created in the 20th century.