Confused about whwat the 2 sides of a conventional pocket knife are called

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killgar said:
Heck, I've been into knives for around 45 years, been on this forum for over 21 years, and I've never recognized or followed any "official" rules regarding what to call each side of a knife. I typically just say "front" or "back".

If a knife has a distinguishing feature on one side, like a shield, or in the case of a switchblade, a button, I refer to the front side as the "shield side", or the "button side", and refer to the other side as the back. Never once in my life have I ever used the term "pile side" to refer to the back of a knife. And yet I don't believe anyone has ever had any difficulty understanding what I was saying.

I wouldn't get too hung up on terminology. There are no rules about such things. Everybody simply chooses their own terms. All that really matters is that people understand what you're saying. And even if they don't, heck, it's not like any lives hang in the balance . You won't be kicked off the forum or cast out of the knife community.

Welcome to Bladeforums Rover-Friskey
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To your point there really are no formal rules written down in a list. There may be a right and a wrong depending on your point of view.

Every hobby and profession has its own terminology nomenclature and even punctuation. Knives fall into both categories.

An electrician asks for needle nose pliers, a home owner might ask for those pointy ones. My wife calls a Phillips screw driver the cross one. My daughter calls a gear selector a “Prindle”. (PRNDL)

Yes I agree you can use your own terms and get your point across. I also agree we don’t need to be hung up on terminology and no lives are at stake.

Traditionally in the knife profession the answers are pile side is the plain side. Mark side has the tang stamps.

Being knife hobbyist we can call things whatever we want and just get our point across.

For those who think front and back are correct. Were is the lock on a lock back?
 
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Railsplitter said:
I am under the impression that the terms mark and pile generally only refer to traditional style slip joint knives.

I have never seen those terms used when discussing knives of a more modern variety.
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Good point. Modern knives also are not made by Cutlers. Lol.
 
If I recall correctly from books I read some years ago, the "pile side" was connected to the old fur trapping days where there was a hair (fur) side, and a pile side of the skins taken.

The shield side is referred to as the "mark" side of the knife, as others have commented above. The "pile" side being the plain or unadorned side of the blade.
 
eveled said:
For those who think front and back are correct. Were is the lock on a lock back?
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Along the spine of the handle.:)

But I would never say that "front" and "back" are the "correct" terms. They are simply terms one can use to describe the sides of a knife. Terms that I myself have used on occasion. And I've never had anyone say "I don't understand what you mean?".
 
I agree..it is not life or death. However, especially as an engineer (Industrial )and a scientist, but in other areas of life, I find it important in communications to have an established nomenclature. In fact, it is a necessity in science to be able to categorize and properly measure what you are studying. As an example, the Excel workbook I use as a database for my knives has 147 fields, and will expand I am sure as I go deeper into knives.
Billy
"Nomenclature, the other foundation of botany, should provide the names as soon as the classification is made... If the names are unknown knowledge of the things also perishes... For a single genus, a single name."- Carl Linnaeus
 
Found this explanation online. Explains it better than I did. Not sure if it's gospel, or just another SWAG. It's what I recall about the subject.
My understanding is the terms originated from cutlery workers. When assembling a knife the liner with bolsters attached is placed into a fixture and the blades, springs, center liners, etc as appropriate are then "piled" onto each other in the appropriate sequence. The side having the maker's stamp (mark) on the tang is the mark side. The side onto which all the parts are piled is the pile side.
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