Knife facts for kids

A small kitchen knife

A Bowie knife of pattern-welded steel

A table knife resting on a stand

A knife is a tool with a cutting edge or blade attached to a handle. Mankind's first tool, knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools.

Originally made of rock, bone, flint, and obsidian, over the centuries, in step with improvements in metallurgy and manufacture, knife blades have been made from bronze, copper, iron, steel, ceramics, and titanium.

Most modern knives have either fixed or folding blades; blade patterns and styles vary by maker and country of origin. The blade edge can be plain or serrated, or a combination of both.

Knives can serve various purposes. Hunters use a hunting knife, soldiers use the combat knife, scouts, campers, and hikers carry a pocket knife; there are kitchen knives for preparing foods, table knives, butter knives and steak knives.

There are many kinds of knives, depending what is to be cut. With the right knife, the cuts you want to make will happen faster and more easily. With the wrong kind of knife, it will take more effort to perform the same amount of work.

When a knife is too small to cut something, a saw, axe, or power tool may be needed.

Carrying knives is illegal in many countries, especially if the blade is longer than several inches. Another type of knife which is illegal in many places is the "switchblade," a knife that has a button which when pressed activates a spring to open the knife.

Types

Ballistic knife

Jungle carbine bayonet

Randall Combat Knife

Throwing knives

Bread and butter knife

Sharpening a butcher's knife

Cleaver

Oyster knife and glove

African throwing knives

Kirpan

Serrated edged bread knife

Utility knife

Air Force Survival Knife

• Ballistic knife: A specialized combat knife with a detachable gas- or spring-propelled blade that can be fired to a distance of several feet or meters by pressing a trigger or switch on the handle
• Bayonet: A knife-shaped close-quarters fighting weapon designed to attach to the muzzle of a rifle or similar weapon
• Butterfly knife: A folding pocket knife with two counter-rotating handles where the blade is concealed within grooves in the handles
• Combat knife: Any knife intended to be used by soldiers in the field, as a general-use tool, but also for fighting
• Dagger: A double-edged combat knife
• Fighting knife: Well known examples include the Bowie knife and the Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife
• Genoese knife: Produced from the 12th century with a guard-less handle
• Karambit: A knife with a curved blade resembling a tiger's claw, and a handle with one or two safety holes
• Rampuri: An Indian gravity knife
• Throwing knife: A knife designed and weighted for throwing
• Trench knife: Purpose-made or improvised knives, intended for close-quarter fighting, particularly in trench warfare
• Throwing knife: A knife designed and weighted for throwing
• Bread knife: A knife with a serrated blade for cutting bread
• Boning knife: A knife used for removing the bones of poultry, meat, and fish
• Butcher's Knife: A knife designed and used primarily for the butchering of animals
• Carving knife: A knife for carving large cooked meats such as poultry, roasts, hams
• Chef's knife: Also known as a French knife, a cutting tool used in preparing food
• Cleaver: It is used mostly for hacking through bones as a kitchen knife or butcher knife, and can also be used for crushing via its broad side, typically garlic
• Electric knife: An electrical device consisting of two serrated blades that are clipped together, providing a sawing action when powered on
• Kitchen knife: Any knife, including the chef's knife, that is intended to be used in food preparation
• Oyster knife: Has a short, thick blade for prying open oyster shells
• Mezzaluna: A two-handled arc-shaped knife used in a rocking motion as a herb chopper or for cutting other foods
• Paring or Coring Knife: A knife with a small but sharp blade used for cutting out the cores from fruit
• Table knife or Case knife: A piece of cutlery, either a butter knife, steak knife, or both, that is part of a table setting, accompanying the fork and spoon
• Bowie knife: Commonly, any large sheath knife, or a specific style of large knife popularized by Jim Bowie
• Bushcraft knife: A sturdy, normally fixed blade knife used while camping in the wilderness
• Karambit: A knife with a curved blade resembling a tigers claw, used as an agricultural tool
• Cobbler's knife or shoemaker's knife: A knife with a semicircular blade used by cobblers since antiquity to cut leather
• Crooked knife: Is a knife used for carving
• Diver's knife: A knife adapted for use in diving and water sports and a necessary part of standard diving dress
• Electrician's knife: A short-bladed knife used to cut electrical insulation
• Kiridashi: A small Japanese knife having a chisel grind and a sharp point, used as a general-purpose utility knife
• Linoleum knife: is a small knife that has a short, stiff blade with a curved point and a handle and is used to cut linoleum or other sheet materials
• Machete: A large heavy knife used to cut through thick vegetation such as sugar cane or jungle undergrowth
• Palette knife: A knife, or frosting spatula, lacking a cutting edge, used by artists for tasks such as mixing and applying paint and in cooking for spreading icing
• Paper knife: Or a "letter opener" it is a knife made of metal or plastic, used for opening mail
• Pocket knife: a folding knife designed to be carried in a pants pocket
• Produce knife: A knife with a rectangular profile and a blunt front edge used by grocers to cut produce
• Rigging knife: A knife used to cut rigging in sailing vessels
• Scalpel: A medical knife, used to perform surgery
• Straight razor: A reusable knife blade used for shaving hair
• Survival knife: A sturdy knife, sometimes with a hollow handle filled with survival equipment
• Utility knife: A short knife with a replaceable triangular blade, used for cutting sheet materials including card stock, paperboard, and corrugated fiberboard
• Wood carving knife: Knives used to shape wood in the arts of wood carving
• X-Acto knife: A scalpel-like knife with a long handle and a replaceable pointed blade, used for precise, clean cutting in arts and crafts
• Katar: An Indian push dagger used ceremonially
• Kilaya: A dagger used in Tibetan Buddhism
• Kirpan: A ceremonial knife that all baptised Sikhs must wear as one of the five visible symbols of the Sikh faith
• Kris: A dagger used in Indo-Malay cultures, often by royalty and religious rituals
• Kukri: A Nepalese knife used as both tool and weapon
• Puukko: A traditional Finnish or Scandinavian style woodcraft belt-knife used as a tool
• Seax: A Germanic single-edged knife, used primarily as a tool, but was also used as a weapon
• Sgian Dubh: A small dagger traditionally worn with highland dress (kilt)
• Ulu: An Inuit woman's all-purpose knife
• Yakutian knife: A traditional Yakuts knife used as a tool for wood carving and meat or fish cutting

Related pages

• Scissors
• Saw

Images for kids

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  Characteristic parts of a knife

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  A Gerber-made full-tang survival knife. The metal from the blade extends into the handle.

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  Knife blade mass production

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  cKc pen knife

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  A Swiss Army knife

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  An OTF knife, showing the sliding blade being extended from the handle

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  A traditional knife handle made from buffalo horn (Tasikmalaya, Indonesia)

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  Birchbark knife handle

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  A large traditional Tuareg knife.

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  Table knives

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  Diver's knife from Three bolt equipment

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  Knives for cutting cheese

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  A Head knife (Round knife).

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  A simple letter opener, or paper knife

See also

In Spanish: Cuchillo para niños