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- Dec 2, 2005
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Last week, I came across this on market stall. I see similar knives from time to time, everywhere from charity shops to 'car boot sales', and have never paid more than £1 for one (primarily because very few people know what they are). They are traditional knives made, in the past, by Romani Gypsies or Travellers, known in the Romani language as Churi, which comes from the Nepalese word for a knife. They are also commonly known, among English and Irish travellers as 'Peg Knives', because one of the uses they were put to was to make simple wooden clothes-pegs, which were sold door-to-door, to make a bit of ready cash.
The Churi is a small-bladed general utility knife, made from a recycled table knife blade. All the examples I have have been simply hafted with stag.
Living on the road, Travellers obviously needed ready access to a knife, and they were used for everything, from chopping up rabbit for the pot, to making clothes pegs. They are very simply made, but it was clearly traditional to re-haft them, rather than leaving the table-knife handle in place, which would have made construction even easier (like my 'Marmalizer' below
).
The hafting, on the examples I have, is very inexpert, and none of the blades are held tightly, but this may not have been particularly important. It is interesting that they seem to have struck with this construction method well into the 20th century.
The knife I picked up this week has a blade, (still very sharp), which bears the Non-XLL mark, most famously associated with Unwin & Rodgers, and later with Joseph Allen & Son, but it was actually made by William Broadhurst & Son, a firm founded in 1831, who owned the mark until 1860.
Another carbon steel example I have utilises an old blade made by the Leeds' cutler Croisdale, who I've written about here in the past. It has seen a lot of use, with the spine of the blade clearly having been struck.
The other Churi I have has a stainless blade, (stainless having first been used for table knife blades, in Sheffield, in 1913).
Older members may recall my series of 'Wizard's Quest' threads, undertaken on behalf of
meako
. Along the way, I picked up a Churi, which I sent him along with the Quest Knife. However, neither of us knew what it was at the time. It was quite nicely-made if I recall correctly.
These simple knives from a fast-disappearing culture, are worth appreciating I think. and I will continue to collect them, but there is a danger of romanticizing them. So, I want to share what I KNOW, rather than what I have READ, and welcome further opportunities to learn. I have known Gypsies most of my life, I was friends with the Lees of Kent, probably England's most famous historic Romany family, as well as some of the Smiths, and I have known Travellers from many parts of England and Ireland. My former partner was from a Gypsy family, still travelling into her teens, and I am still close to her extended family. I have spoken to Travellers, aged from 18 to 80 about Churi, all said they were familiar with the term, as well as the term 'peg knife', but beyond that I was not able to learn a great deal, beyond an oft-cited claim that their grandfather had one. They carried, and used knives, but perhaps had different uses for them in the past. While the Smiths and Lees, were still involved in fruit-picking, in the 1980's, when I knew them, in the English Midlands, and the North, Travellers were more likely to be associated with scrap-metal dealing than fruit-picking, where a heavier knife might be more useful. Of course, it's also much easier to BUY a knife these days, rather than making your own.
I know an old travelling man, who claims to have been born in a Vardo on the open road, but his sister reckons he was born in a council house in Manchester. Most of the Travellers I know today are 'settled', largely because they have been forced off the road by changes in legislation, and perhaps the temptations of modern society, but many still have a sense of embarrassment about abandoning their disappearing culture, which can lead to the romanticisation of a hard nomadic life, which still attracts huge discrimination.
There are many books about the Romany people, and their culture, but one of the best I've read is the fairly recently published The Stopping Places by Damian Le Bas.
The Churi is a small-bladed general utility knife, made from a recycled table knife blade. All the examples I have have been simply hafted with stag.
Living on the road, Travellers obviously needed ready access to a knife, and they were used for everything, from chopping up rabbit for the pot, to making clothes pegs. They are very simply made, but it was clearly traditional to re-haft them, rather than leaving the table-knife handle in place, which would have made construction even easier (like my 'Marmalizer' below
).
The hafting, on the examples I have, is very inexpert, and none of the blades are held tightly, but this may not have been particularly important. It is interesting that they seem to have struck with this construction method well into the 20th century.
The knife I picked up this week has a blade, (still very sharp), which bears the Non-XLL mark, most famously associated with Unwin & Rodgers, and later with Joseph Allen & Son, but it was actually made by William Broadhurst & Son, a firm founded in 1831, who owned the mark until 1860.
Another carbon steel example I have utilises an old blade made by the Leeds' cutler Croisdale, who I've written about here in the past. It has seen a lot of use, with the spine of the blade clearly having been struck.
The other Churi I have has a stainless blade, (stainless having first been used for table knife blades, in Sheffield, in 1913).
Older members may recall my series of 'Wizard's Quest' threads, undertaken on behalf of
meako
. Along the way, I picked up a Churi, which I sent him along with the Quest Knife. However, neither of us knew what it was at the time. It was quite nicely-made if I recall correctly.
These simple knives from a fast-disappearing culture, are worth appreciating I think. and I will continue to collect them, but there is a danger of romanticizing them. So, I want to share what I KNOW, rather than what I have READ, and welcome further opportunities to learn. I have known Gypsies most of my life, I was friends with the Lees of Kent, probably England's most famous historic Romany family, as well as some of the Smiths, and I have known Travellers from many parts of England and Ireland. My former partner was from a Gypsy family, still travelling into her teens, and I am still close to her extended family. I have spoken to Travellers, aged from 18 to 80 about Churi, all said they were familiar with the term, as well as the term 'peg knife', but beyond that I was not able to learn a great deal, beyond an oft-cited claim that their grandfather had one. They carried, and used knives, but perhaps had different uses for them in the past. While the Smiths and Lees, were still involved in fruit-picking, in the 1980's, when I knew them, in the English Midlands, and the North, Travellers were more likely to be associated with scrap-metal dealing than fruit-picking, where a heavier knife might be more useful. Of course, it's also much easier to BUY a knife these days, rather than making your own.
I know an old travelling man, who claims to have been born in a Vardo on the open road, but his sister reckons he was born in a council house in Manchester. Most of the Travellers I know today are 'settled', largely because they have been forced off the road by changes in legislation, and perhaps the temptations of modern society, but many still have a sense of embarrassment about abandoning their disappearing culture, which can lead to the romanticisation of a hard nomadic life, which still attracts huge discrimination.
There are many books about the Romany people, and their culture, but one of the best I've read is the fairly recently published The Stopping Places by Damian Le Bas.
