Old small knife, what is it?

[Frankki]

Greetings everyone, first time posting here.

At work I found an old and rather neglected small knife which was used mainly for cutting plastic wrappings. Totally dull and stained, with nicks and scratches and whatnot all over the blade.. a poor sight indeed.

I noticed, however, a J.A.Henckels company "Zwilling" logo on the blade tang, so I thought it's a shame to treat good Solingen steel in this manner. Took it home and started cleaning it up a little and to put an edge on it. Nothing fancy, just getting the worst staining off the blade, little sandpapering, honing and polishing.

Now, it's a bit funny looking knife, wooden handle is about 10,5 cm long and the carbon steel blade is just slightly under 4 cm. Of which half is tang and only two centimeters for the actual cutting bit. Some pics to clarify:

http://img205.imageshack.us/my.php?image=imgp1975js1.jpg
http://img141.imageshack.us/my.php?image=imgp1983jz9.jpg
http://img139.imageshack.us/my.php?image=imgp1985kv2.jpg

So what would this have been originally? I was thinking it could be an old type of hobby knife, based on the small blade size and shape. Then again, the blade isn't angled like in a model builders scalpel and trying to use it in such fashion is not quite ergonomic or natural. It has a nice hair-shaving edge now and should adequately stand up against most plastic wrappings D), but I'm still curious as to what it is actually supposed to be.

Any suggestions?

 

[siguy]

it looks to me like a chip carving knife, for carving small things in wood.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=31083&cat=1,130,43332,43393&ap=1

 

[Kazeryu]

If you don't get answers here I expect this thread will be moved to BRL's forum.

 

[Moondrop]

it looks to me like a chip carving knife, for carving small things in wood.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=31083&cat=1,130,43332,43393&ap=1

I agree with siguy. I have one (different brand) that looks similar.

 

[cowhorse01]

This looks to me to be a knife that opens the back of watches from a jeweler. I purchased a knew one that has a similar blade.
Cowhorse01

 

[Frankki]

Interesting, so a woodworkers tool possibly? I wonder what carpenter left it at my workplace, it's been around "forever". Co-workers' ideas for what it is ranged from a potato peeling knife to a skinning instrument. Wood carving knife does sound ok, I'll try to find a suitable wood item and try it a bit.

 

[scars]

More than likely a whittler but I have seen tools similar to that used for cutting leather.

 

[Bastid]

More than likely a whittler but I have seen tools similar to that used for cutting leather.

:thumbup: