Knife facts for kids

A knife is a handy tool with a sharp edge, called a blade, attached to a handle. Knives are one of the oldest tools humans ever used! People started using them at least two-and-a-half million years ago, way back in the Stone Age.

Early knives were made from natural materials like rock, bone, flint, and obsidian. Over time, as people learned more about working with metals, knife blades were made from bronze, copper, iron, and steel. Today, you can also find blades made from ceramics and titanium.

Most modern knives have either a blade that stays fixed in place or one that folds into the handle. The edge of a blade can be smooth (plain) or have jagged teeth (serrated), or even a mix of both.

Knives are used for many different things. Hunters use a hunting knife, and soldiers might use a combat knife. If you go camping or hiking, you might carry a pocket knife. In the kitchen, there are many kitchen knives for preparing food, like table knives and steak knives. Using the right knife makes cutting much easier and faster!

Carrying certain types of knives can be against the law in many places, especially if the blade is long. Some knives, like "switchblades" (which open with a button), are also not allowed in many areas.

What Are the Main Kinds of Knives?

There are many different types of knives, each designed for a special job. Here are some common ones:

Knives for Everyday Use

• Pocket knife: A folding knife that fits easily in your pocket. Great for small tasks when you're out and about.
• Utility knife: A small knife with a replaceable blade, often used for cutting things like cardboard or paperboard.
• Paper knife: Also called a "letter opener," this knife is used to open mail without tearing it.
• Palette knife: This knife doesn't have a sharp edge. Artists use it to mix and apply paint, and cooks use it to spread icing on cakes.
• Straight razor: A reusable blade used for shaving hair.

Knives for the Kitchen

A bread and butter knife

Sharpening a butcher's knife

A cleaver

An oyster knife and glove

A serrated bread knife

• Kitchen knife: Any knife used for preparing food.
• Chef's knife: A common kitchen knife, also known as a French knife, used for many cutting tasks.
• Bread knife: A knife with a serrated (toothed) edge, perfect for slicing bread without squishing it.
• Boning knife: Used to remove bones from poultry, meat, and fish.
• Butcher's Knife: Designed for cutting and preparing meat.
• Carving knife: Used for slicing large cooked meats like roasts and hams.
• Cleaver: A large, heavy kitchen knife used mostly for chopping through bones. Its wide side can also be used to crush things like garlic.
• Electric knife: An electrical tool with two serrated blades that move back and forth, making it easy to slice through large foods.
• Oyster knife: Has a short, thick blade for prying open tough oyster shells.
• Mezzaluna: A knife with a curved blade and two handles, used in a rocking motion to chop herbs or other foods.
• Paring or Coring Knife: A small, sharp knife used for peeling fruits and vegetables or removing cores from fruit.
• Table knife: A knife used as part of a table setting when you eat, like a butter knife or steak knife.

Knives for Outdoor Adventures and Tools

An Air Force Survival Knife

A utility knife

• Bowie knife: A large, well-known sheath knife, often used outdoors.
• Bushcraft knife: A strong, usually fixed-blade knife used for camping and wilderness activities.
• Diver's knife: A knife made for use underwater during diving and water sports.
• Electrician's knife: A short-bladed knife used to cut electrical insulation.
• Linoleum knife: A small knife with a curved, stiff blade used for cutting linoleum and other sheet materials.
• Machete: A large, heavy knife used to cut through thick plants like sugar cane or jungle growth.
• Rigging knife: Used on sailing ships to cut rigging (ropes and cables).
• Survival knife: A strong knife, sometimes with a hollow handle that can hold small survival tools.
• Wood carving knife: Knives used to shape wood for art and crafts.
• X-Acto knife: A very sharp knife with a long handle and a changeable pointed blade, used for precise cutting in arts and crafts.

Special and Historical Knives

A ballistic knife

A bayonet for a jungle carbine rifle

A Randall Combat Knife

Throwing knives

African throwing knives

A Kirpan

• Ballistic knife: A special combat knife with a blade that can be shot out a short distance by a spring or gas.
• Bayonet: A knife-shaped weapon designed to attach to the end of a rifle.
• Butterfly knife: A folding knife with two handles that rotate around the blade.
• Combat knife: Any knife used by soldiers as a tool or for fighting.
• Dagger: A fighting knife with two sharp edges.
• Fighting knife: Knives specifically designed for combat, like the famous Bowie knife.
• Genoese knife: A type of knife made since the 12th century, known for its handle without a guard.
• Karambit: A knife with a curved blade that looks like a tiger's claw, often used as an agricultural tool.
• Rampuri: An Indian gravity knife.
• Throwing knife: A knife specially designed and weighted to be thrown accurately.
• Trench knife: Knives made or adapted for close-quarters fighting, especially in trench warfare.
• Cobbler's knife or shoemaker's knife: A knife with a semicircular blade used by shoemakers to cut leather.
• Crooked knife: A knife used for carving.
• Kiridashi: A small Japanese knife with a sharp point, used as a general-purpose tool.
• Katar: An Indian push dagger sometimes used in ceremonies.
• Kilaya: A dagger used in Tibetan Buddhism.
• Kirpan: A ceremonial knife that Sikhs who have been baptized must wear as one of their five important symbols of faith.
• Kris: A dagger from Indo-Malay cultures, often used by royalty and in religious rituals.
• Kukri: A Nepalese knife used as both a tool and a weapon.
• Puukko: A traditional Finnish or Scandinavian belt-knife used for woodcraft.
• Seax: A Germanic knife with one sharp edge, used as a tool and sometimes a weapon.
• Sgian Dubh: A small dagger traditionally worn with Scottish highland dress (a kilt).
• Ulu: An Inuit woman's all-purpose knife.
• Yakutian knife: A traditional Yakuts knife used for carving wood and cutting meat or fish.

Related pages

• Scissors
• Saw

Images for kids

• 

  A small kitchen knife

• 

  A Bowie knife made of patterned steel

• 

  A table knife resting on a stand

• 

  Characteristic parts of a knife

• 

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

• 

  Knife blade mass production

• 

  cKc pen knife

• 

  A Swiss Army knife

• 

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

• 

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

• 

  Birchbark knife handle

• 

  A large traditional Tuareg knife.

• 

  Table knives

• 

  Diver's knife from Three bolt equipment

• 

  Knives for cutting cheese

• 

  A Head knife (Round knife).

• 

  A simple letter opener, or paper knife

See also

In Spanish: Cuchillo para niños