Sharp practice: the point of a pocket knife
We humans have been carrying knives since we first learned to chip a cutting edge from a piece of flint, making a ‘pocket’ knife mankind’s favourite, and most useful, omni-tool. Easy to carry and truly multipurpose – whether for cutting and eating food, picking teeth, slicing bread, cutting throats (human or animal); skinning and gutting game, sacrificing to appease the gods or warning off aggressors – a knife was essential kit for men (and a fair few women). And the finer the knife, the higher your status.
As schoolchildren, most of us had pocket knives to sharpen pencils and cut string. Today, with rising knife crime, taking one to the classroom would likely end in a call to the police. Yet country people still need a decent knife to sever baler-twine, gut fish, hock rabbits and cut our apples to accompany our slice of stilton.
As a rule, the wealthier and more powerful you are, the finer the knife you want to carry. Even so, it is now potentially illegal to carry ‘in public’ – it is even arguable that public footpaths are ‘in public’ – without ‘good reason’, a knife that either has
