Origin of Serrated Pocket and Fixed Blades

Minnesota Man

Minnesota Man

Joined
Sep 30, 2014
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Hello knife knuts, I'm really bored and pondering the origin of serrations of modern knives? I remember talking to an older fella and he told me that serrations were not common on non kitchen knives. Then seemingly over night it became all the rage. Around when serrations become a common thing?
 
Ug or Gragle, I hope I have the spelling right, . . . well one of them cut up a bunch of stuff and there were raw diamonds and stuff in the sand that was mixed in with what all he was cutting up . . . and well . . . his nice, just sharpened, hunk of hammered iron got all chipped and scraped up at the edge . . . and he was so pissed he just kept using the knife and didn't take it to Chtrop to get it properly sharpened again because Chtrop is such a pompous fanny head because only he can make the iron things sharp and he didn't think he could put up with listening to any more snobby talk about which sort of dirt he liked the best to throw on the iron while he was banging on it . . .
and turns out the scraped and gouged edge cut pretty good anyway, maybe better on the thick vines so he just went about his primitive day and then took a nap with Fulasi because he liked to nap with her best.
True story.
 
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Oh I forgot to add :
Ug or Gragle, wish I could remember which, always skipped history class or he would have known about the chipped stone cutting tools from back in the day (before there were the iron things that Chtrop gets so snobby about).
Chtrop didn't know about them either because he was always talking and never listened to what anyone else had to say.
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Bread knives have been serrated for a long time, the original Cutco Hunter has been available with a serrated blade probably since the 60's iirc, and I believe the original all metal Gerber's we're available in serrated blades around that time as well.
duct knives and wall board knives are also often serrated.
 
Cutco, Ug , Gragle, and/or Chtro may have been earlier, but i do believe it was Spyderco to be the most responsible for where we are today with serrated folders.

That being said, I am no historian and certainly no knife expert but these limitations have not stopped me from opining in others areas of knowledge either. ;)
 
OK . . . I googled "origin of serrated knife blade".
tacky I know.
Result :

Syracuse resident Joseph Burns is credited with inventing the serrated knife in 1919. The inspiration came to him while using a scallop-edged glass-cutting tool, a design he thought might prove useful for cutting bread.Apr 27, 2003

Of course he didn't know about Ug and Gragle or the whole chipped stone thing.
During history class he used to flirt with this cheer leader, or play hookie entirely once she decided she like him (well . . . liked his Camero anyway).
 
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I know this is not what the OP was asking, but...

I never really got the "serrations are like a saw" thing. I understand not liking to sharpen them though. IMO, they are like taking a dozen mini wharncliffe points and putting them in a line. I think of a saw more like stacking a bunch of miniature chisels in a line. I always thought serrations are best when you need to draw your knife through something without crushing it, such as with thick-crusted bread.

Additionally, they tend to come in handy when cutting on a hard surface, such as cutting meat on a porcelain plate. Even though the points might become dull, the sharpened scallops still slice through the meat without contacting the porcelain/ceramic plate. They also tend to work like mini gut-hooks on things such as boxes or paper packing tape. I often appreciate serrations on blades with thinner stock and shallow or hollow grinds.
 
Saws have been around for a long time and I suspect it is not a leap to think that somebody might have thought saw teeth on a knife (hand tool) might be really useful especially for cutting soft things like bread.
 
Funny... I was talking knives with a friend a few days ago, who told me Spyderco was the first to use serrations on their pocket knives. I didn't say so, but I didn't believe him. Maybe they can be credited with popularizing them? Not to be outdone, I told him that Spyderco gave their "clip-it" knife the very first pocket clip.
 
I would posit that Spyderco is likely the most prominent, modern company that popularized serrations for folding knives. I recall is was mostly for defensive uses to aggressively cut through clothing. There has to be some serration history in the mariner-world as well; serrations are quite effective at cutting the heavy hemp and nylon ropes.

ROCK6
 
Minnesota Man said:
...Around when serrations become a common thing?
Click to expand...
Imo, The golden standard for modern pocket knife was the buck 110
And one didn't see serrations become full blown in pocket knives
until the tactical fad fully caught the imagination of folks
who bought the story that "the military" found serrations
pretty useful for cutting rope, cord or line.
Some figured it made folders feared deadly weapons.
And so it was that at its height of "tactical fever",
there were even fully serrated folders!!
There were of course some fixed bladed survival knives which had them too.
Seemed great, until owners soon discovered that back in the day
there was no way for them to maintain serrated edges
with their traditional flat bench stones :)
The availability and cost of rod sharpeners
on which to match a specific factory's knife serrations was
probably a drawback; not forgetting the time and skill required
for one to master the art of individually honing each serration perfectly for an entire row...
 
Camillus, Schrade, Victorinox, and others sometimes added serrations to blades on their multi-blade knives, going back decades. These were rather poorly executed (IMO), just being simple scallops at a rather obtuse angle, much like a cheap steak knife.

Spyderco though can be credited for popularizing them on our modern folding knives, and also for putting proper serrations on them. Think of the original Police C07 with its swedged tip for stabbing and full serrations. It sold like hotcakes just on looks alone.
 
Serrations on a knife have nothing to do with saw teeth, because a knife is a knife and a saw is a saw.

A knife has a thicker blade that tapers into a thin edge that can cut through soft material easily.
A saw is the opposite. It has a thin blade with a wide, staggered saw edge that can cut a gash in a hard material (like wood) that's wide enough for the thinner blade to pass through. A serrated knife can never do this, because the blade will be too thick. You can at most make a notch in the wood.

Two completely different tools.
 
I don't know when serrated knives were invented, but they were popular with men working on the river or docks. Serrated blades were good for cutting rope. I'm not talking about nice clean rope just out of the hardware store. I mean 2 " and larger rope several years old, barnacle encrusted, full of sand and hard as rock. A knife with a sharp razor edge would just slide across the rope cutting very few strands if any, but a serrated blade would grab and cut the fibers. One of the most popular knives for this was the Gerber Gator with a serrated edge.
 
I believe they were invented long before man walked the earth. There was a legendary monster that swam with a mouth full of double edged serrated edc knives. Decendants of this flippered knife nut still roam the deep to this day.

carcharodon-carcharias.jpg


In all seriousness though I believe the OP is asking specifically when they became popular on folding knives. To which I agree it was likely Spyderco that popularized serrations on folders. However those early Spyderco serrates folders seem to usually be mostly serrated with a tiny bit of plain edge at the tip.

I wonder who first popularized the “combo edge” we often see today with only the last 1/3 of the edge serrated. This seems to have become very prevalent in cheap knives.
 
Minnesota Man said:
Hello knife knuts, I'm really bored and pondering the origin of serrations of modern knives? I remember talking to an older fella and he told me that serrations were not common on non kitchen knives. Then seemingly over night it became all the rage. Around when serrations become a common thing?
Click to expand...

Great question. Were you inspired by the other post in GKD claiming that serrated folders were an "American innovation"? That claim certainly got me thinking.

Clearly Sal Glesser popularized them. I have a hard time believing that he, as that other member claimed, invented them.

Though I am having an equally hard time finding an example of a pre-Spyderco serrated folder too! :D
 
I didn't vet the pictures so take this info with a grain of salt, but pinterest is listing pictures from a website called armsandatiques.com (and some others) describing some Mughal Indian swords from the 18th century (1700's) with serrations.
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Lapedog said:
I believe they were invented long before man walked the earth. There was a legendary monster that swam with a mouth full of double edged serrated edc knives. Decendants of this flippered knife nut still roam the deep to this day.

In all seriousness though I believe the OP is asking specifically when they became popular on folding knives. To which I agree it was likely Spyderco that popularized serrations on folders. However those early Spyderco serrates folders seem to usually be mostly serrated with a tiny bit of plain edge at the tip.

I wonder who first popularized the “combo edge” we often see today with only the last 1/3 of the edge serrated. This seems to have become very prevalent in cheap knives.
Click to expand...
No, he was not. He was asking about both folders and fixed blades. Says clearly in the thread title.
 
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