Victorian era knives. What would a Holmesian era gentle person carry?

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mrstang01

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Jan 10, 2000
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Did most carry fixed blades, pocket knives, or nothing? I'm guessing the need for an eating knife was done, but perhaps not. I've searched it, but found no real answers.

Thanks!

Michael
 
mrstang01 said:
Did most carry fixed blades, pocket knives, or nothing? I'm guessing the need for an eating knife was done, but perhaps not. I've searched it, but found no real answers.

Thanks!

Michael
Click to expand...

I don't have credible sources to hand just now, but in my research as a literary scholar, it seems that, if something was carried, it was a very small penknife type knife. Such a knife could be easily and unobtrusively carried even in the shallow breast pocket of a vest, for example.

I couldn't really speak to specific brands, or how prolific the practice was among gentlemen of the day.

However, it was a time when having even a small knife was just part of the day to day, and used for a host of things.
 
A fixed blade would have been uncommon for any English or American city dweller to carry. Even British sailors were restricted to the non-pointed slipjoint folding knife to avoid violence below decks. A fixed blade would be associated with a brigand or a tradesman. Possibly a soldier and then only on the Indian frontier, never in barracks or on parade.

President Lincoln had a small pen knife in his pocket when he was assassinated and I think you can find images of it online. This is a bit before the Holmes days but still considered Victorian. Knives for trimming quills were becoming uncommon with the advent of the steel nib but were still a typical accoutrement. By Holmes's day a small knife on the end of a pocketwatch chain would not be unusual.

Zieg
 
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Probably a fancy pen knife, if a well to do "gentleman". Most, if not all literate people, in the Victorian era and somewhat later, (literate means knows how to read and write) would have needed a pen knife to dress the quill on his pen.
 
The Victorian era was the heyday of the Sheffield knife industry. They made some of the finest knives in the world, as well as some of the most advanced designs. Among the gentry class, intricate lobster patterns with many blades on both sides of the knife were not uncommon. These blades included pen blades, nail files, button hooks, and reamer blades for pipe stems. Small scissors were not uncommon. Think forerunner of the Swiss Army knife.

Pocket knife scales of this period saw a lot of pearl used as well as some great India stag.

This was also the era of the wharncliffe blade point style. It was a popular blade from the 1890's to the 1920's.

Wander over to the traditional sub forums and look around. We have a few members over in England that are very knowledgable in the Sheffield arena.
 
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The original meaning of the word gentleman signifies a lower ranking member of the gentry. A man of respectable birth and means. He would have had a place to store his kitchenware and someone to cook his meals.

What they carried would depend on how they passed their time. Like today there would have been a lot of folding knives. A gentleman who lived on a country estate would probably have something more stout than a banker. The big game hunter in the colonies might have carried a sheath knife. A military man might well make use of a sword. Winston Churchill was part of the last British cavalry charge in 1898 which is right around the end of the Victorian era.

Whatever they carried would have likely been made of Sheffield steel because that was the premier British steelmaker of the Victorian era.
 
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