What is a Knife?

[Planterz]

There's only one man whose opinion I trust on what a knife is or isn't.

 

[Kettleman]

The knife is a tool created by early capitalists to separate “ disposable income “ from the obsessed.

 

[Houlahound]

The knife is a tool created by early capitalists to separate “ disposable income “ from the obsessed.

Can verify this is true

 

[Rob47]

A knife is a multi-purpose tool, usually with a handle and one or more blades with at least one sharp edge, used for cutting or scraping.

 

[TC]

However, the soup can lid that cut me the other day, I wouldn’t call a knife, but it did the job.

A knife being a material seperator does not make every material seperator a knife.

 

[Houlahound]

My question is what is the biggest possible knife before it becomes not a knife and why is there no limit to how small a knife can be??

 

[calm]

For goodness sake.....

 

[abcdef]

Anything that identifies as a knife.

 

[VorpelSword]

You can paraphrase it any way you want, but the first definition nails it for me.

In England they perohibit the public carry of anything with an edge or point, so . . . .

 

[chevyrulez1]

To me, I would say a good definition of a knife is "a single handed hand tool with a simple blade attached to a handle designed for cutting and slicing". "Single handed" to eliminate two handed tools like axes, swords, and brush tools. "Hand tool" to eliminate powered tools or complex mechanical cutters, "simple blade" to eliminate saws or other specialty cutting tools. Just because something is sharp doesn't make it a knife, even though it could possibly be used in place of a knife in a pinch. Just because a tool can be used for cutting, doesn't make it a knife (saw, scissors, cutoff wheel, etc)
Never though about it, but it is pretty complex to define.

 

[Prester John]

 

[Alberta Ed]

What you use to cut stuff.

 

[Peregrin]

I prefer the definition attributed to Jerry Fisk -
A knife is simply a material separator.

Separates me from my money!

 

[Houlahound]

Anything that identifies as a knife.

This is peak woke in 2023.

 

[abo4ster]

A knife will never be obsolete, it’s cutting edge technology

 

[runscott]

I'm not sure. Friends have told me that these are 'knives', yet they have no handles (they might have had at one point).

 

[Vlade]

What is a knife?........oh I don't know, I thought I knew but after reading the above posts I don't know anymore. I'll go with TC as a material separator.

 

[Another Shepherd]

I'm not sure. Friends have told me that these are 'knives', yet they have no handles (they might have had at one point).

They are blades, not knives.

 

[Arathol]

They are blades, not knives.

And this would be a knife......

 

[runscott]

They are blades, not knives.

Maybe, but to others they are knives. Blades get attached to handles to make knives, or maybe a blade can be used as a knife by itself, without a separate handle. Semantics, I guess. I'll leave it to others to debate.