Saturday, November 3, 2012

Types of Knives - The Toothpick


Quite often this type of knife is referred to as a switch knife. The toothpick is basically a clasp style jackknife that comes in a very compact package. This particular style of pocket knife is found in sizes ranging anywhere from 3 to 5 inches in the closed position. The larger toothpicks are considered to be the most collectable and generally will have a greater value. The smaller versions should not be confused with a “Texas” toothpick which often referred to a large “Bowie” style knife.

The toothpick was a knife that was easily carried in your pocket and it was also characterized by a long clip blade with a distinct curvature of the blade’s spine.
There were also two bladed models and both types were mainly used as “fishing” knives and quite often found themselves residing in someone’s tackle box or as a part of their regular fishing gear. The long, narrow clip blade was well-suited for detailed cutting chores such as filleting fish.

There is also some debate as to their use as a fighting knife but this may have been more of a marketing ploy that was created to sell more knives of this type. Unfortunately, many people carried a wide variety of pocket knives. If an altercation developed, the type of knife that may have been used would almost certainly have been one that was carried on a regular basis and wouldn’t have necessarily been a toothpick.

The popularity of toothpick knives has declined mainly to the large quantity of filet knives now available on the market which were better suited to the task. Many people now collect toothpicks and this has generated new interest in this style of pocket knife.

Got “Texas tickler”?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The long slime profile, along with thin rear bolster makes this a favorite for pocket carry. Makes a great DIY steak knife, although the waiter may get confused, lol. Imperial made an inexepensive but very popular Toothpick fish knife, as did others - I'll bet a lot of us owned one at one time or another if we did any fishing as a kid.

Survival said...

Nice knife! How much cost it?

riverwalker said...

To: anonymous 7:29

I don't remember if I had one when I was younger but I do remember having a real nice "melon tester". Don't really know what happened to it but wished I still had it.

Thanks anon.

RW

riverwalker said...

To: Survival

It cost slightly less than $10(USD). It's a small toothpick with three blades which is not too common. Most toothpicks have single blades. There are several toothpicks that can also be found with two blades.

RW

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