When I was growing up, men fought with switchblades. Too much drink mixed with a bump or a slight would draw out the switchblades on many a Saturday night at juke joints in the South.
With a push of a button, the knife opened automatically, and someone lay crumpled on the floor or outside in the dirt. That’s how men fought back in the day – with pocket knives that sometimes left a mark but most times never left you dead. The victim went home with wounded pride but alive. I was a child back then – not old enough to go into those places – but I heard the stories.
Today, though, guns are the means of shutting someone up if you feel disrespected, and with guns someone is likely to die.
I got to thinking about switchblades recently when I saw one among pocket knives on trays inside a glass case at auction. They were in the case because they were so small that some dishonest auction-goer could have easily slipped one or two of them into a pocket. They also seemed to be pretty popular because several – most of which were in groupings – already had absentee bids on them.
In the years I’ve been going to auctions, I’ve had a few pocket knives turn up in box lots that I’d bought. They bore some of the same carved-handle designs as the ones at this auction. I don’t think I’ve ever had one of those Boy Scouts pocket knives, although I’ve picked up a lot of Scout paraphernalia.
The handles on the knives at auction ranged from mother of pearl to stag to bone, and more. There were also various types – some of whose names I found by Googling, including the basics: jack knife with a hinge on one end and one or more blades; pen knife with hinges at both ends and multiple blades, and multipurpose knife such as the Swiss Army blade with a little bit of everything.
Early on, a small pen knife, for example, was used for sharpening the quills on a pen for writing; a sheepsfoot knife, for trimming the hooves of sheep, and a Spey, for spaying farm animals.
Several of those at auction had makers’ names on the outside: Case, Ka-bar. In many cases, a maker’s name is only on the blade. One knife advertised a company in Newark, NJ, and another with a serrated edge bore the words “Fish-Knife.”
Googling, I found that pocket knives date back to 600 to 500 BC in Austria, and had a bone handle with a single blade. The Roman Empire created its own knives that were used as tools, including a version of the Swiss Army knife. Over the years, knives were made as weapons for fighting, and by the 17th century, the inexpensive peasant knife was created.
Companies in Sheffield, England, Soligen, Germany, and other places began full-scale manufacturing of pocket knives, creating major commercial centers. I’ve come across many blades – pocket and household knives – with the Sheffield and Soligen names from the early 20th century.
The Smithsonian has in its collection an amazing 100-blade knife made by a Soligen company in 1880 for a cutlery store in New York. The store displayed it to show customers the craftsmanship of its merchandise.
In the United States, various types of pocket knives were produced during the Industrial Revolution when mass-production took hold. Case, a manufacturer’s name on several of the knives at auction, was one of the major producers of pocket knives here. The company was known for the shape of its stainless steel blades and bone handles. It was also considered to be the best among knife makers, and its knives are apparently very collectible. The company is now owned by Zippo, the cigarette lighter company, in Bradford, PA, where they both got started.
The switchblade at auction resembled an Italian stiletto blade that many U.S. soldiers brought back from Europe after World War II. It was very popular and used primarily as a weapon to defend oneself by stabbing rather than cutting. During the 1950s, the switchblade became associated with youth gangs, and politicians decried the use of them. Congress passed a law in 1958 that banned the importing and possessing of switchblades across state lines, but the bill did not ban them altogether. Soon, though, guns replaced switchblades as weapons.
Here are more of the pocket knives at auction:
