View source for Penny knife

{{short description|Type of utility knife}}
[[Image:OpinelKnifeNo3.jpg|thumb|222px|An [[Opinel]] No. 3 folding knife.]]
The '''penny knife''' was a originally a simple 18th century [[utility knife]] with a fixed [[blade]].  It got the name ''penny knife'' because it cost 1 penny in England and the United States towards the end of the 18th century.<ref>{{cite book|last=Goddard|first= Wayne| title=The Wonder of Knifemaking|publisher= Krause Publications| ISBN =978-0-87341-798-3 |year=2000|page= 141}}</ref>

The famous ''Fuller's Penny Knife'' helped gain the reputation of [[Sheffield, England]] cutlers in the [[pre-industrial society|pre-industrial era]] of the early 18th century.<ref>''Sheffield'', The Athenaeum, London: John Francis, No. 2420, 14 March 1874, p. 351</ref>

==Description==

The ''penny knife'' later evolved into a basic, mass-produced [[pocketknife]] with a folding blade, which pivoted freely in and out of the handle without a backspring or other device to hold it in position (other than the frictional pressures of the knife handle). This type of knife was popular with farmers in the United States, England, France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain for much of the 19th and part of the 20th century, and consequently is often called a ''farmer knife'', ''sodbuster knife'', or ''peasant knife''.<ref>''The Youth's Companion'', Boston, MA: Perry Mason & Co., Vol. 52, No. 1 (2 January 1879), p. 108</ref>

Antique penny knives have increased in value and can sell for up to US$500 or €400.

In modern production, the smallest models of the [[Opinel knife|Opinel]], a late 19th-century peasant's knife, continue to use this basic design, consisting of a folding blade pivoting on an axle mounted through a steel-bolstered wooden handle.<ref name=shackleford>{{cite book|title=Blade's Guide to Knives & Their Values|last=Shackleford  |first=Steve  |pages=288–290|publisher = Krause Publications|year= 2010|ISBN=978-1-4402-0387-9 }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Penknife]]
* [[Higonokami]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Knives}}

[[Category:Pocket knives]]